A new study identifies key regions across the U.S. where investments can deliver triple benefits for people, the climate and birds. These conservation sweet spots support significant numbers of more than half of U.S. bird species, including 75% of forest birds. “We wanted to think about how places that we might focus our conservation attention might provide co-benefits for biodiversity, including birds, as well as for people,” lead author Rachel Neugarten from the Wildlife Conservation Society told Mongabay. “One of the big takeaways is that these win-win-wins do exist.” Researchers used data from a previous study that mapped priority areas in the U.S. for 11 different ecosystem services, including pollination, recreation, carbon storage and flood mitigation. They then combined that information with abundance data on 479 bird species across the U.S. from eBird, a citizen science biodiversity data set. Overlaying bird population data with information about ecosystem service and carbon storage priority areas, researchers found regions that benefit people, the climate and birds the most are the Appalachian Mountains, New England, the southeastern U.S., the Ozarks and the Sierra and Cascade mountain ranges — all densely forested areas. “Forests are ecosystem service machines. …The number of benefits they provide is really diverse, and the magnitude of the benefits are really high,” Neugarten said, referring to how forests store vast amounts of carbon, provide timber, reduce floods, improve water quality and provide recreation. The priority areas identified in the study host a sizable population of nearly half of all U.S. bird…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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