Up to 1,000 miles wide, and stretching some 9,000 miles north-south from Alaska to Patagonia, the Pacific Flyway is the major migration route for more than 350 species of birds in North and South America. While the route may vary slightly from year to year, the availability of food, water, and shelter (and an absence of development) in key places along the way is what helps define the path of the flyway and has shaped its course for millennia.
Conserving resource-rich areas along flyways, such as the Boyd Ranch, is critical, as a single location can benefit a large number of unique bird species and literally hundreds of thousands of individual birds within those species. Similarly, loss, subdivision, or degradation of these areas can have a big impact on species survival. The generations-long dedication of the Boyd family to land stewardship and conservation has ensured that not only is the habitat on the ranch in excellent condition, it will continue to be a resource for birds in perpetuity.
In fact, an incredible 200+ species of birds have been documented as using the Boyd Ranch for nesting, breeding, or foraging, thanks to its abundant water resources, wetlands, sagebrush habitat, and native shrubs and grasses. The ranch is home to the largest spring/fall migration staging area for the greater sandhill crane in northeast Nevada. It provides a secure stopover for thousands of cranes on their way to and from nesting habitats in Elko County andwintering areas in the Lower Colorado River Valley.
The White-faced ibis, snowy egret, black tern, bobolink, Swainson’s hawks, greater sage grouse, burrowing owls, and golden eagles are also among the many bird species found there. So significant is the ranch to avian life that it has been designated as an Important Bird Area by the National Audubon Society. Many other native plant and animal species are found on the ranch that also benefit from the same resources used by these birds.
ALC has conserved other important habitat along the Pacific Flyway, including Stone Lakes National Wildlife Refuge (537 acres), Gray Lodge Wildlife Area (750 acres), Siletz Bay (248 acres), Modoc National Wildlife Refuge (325 acres), Atwell Island (50 acres) and JS Ranch (6,000 acres). ALC’s work in Alaska also conserves pristine and vital habitat for an abundance of birds that utilize the Pacific Flyway. Similarly, along the Mississippi Flyway (another key bird migration route, which is used by 60 percent of North American bird species) ALC has protected or enhanced some 25,000 acres of wetlands, islands, side channels, and native forests through conservation projects within the Mississippi River watershed.
Help ALC conserve more land for birds and other species along the Pacific Flyway and elsewhere. 
