This week, ABC hosts blogs from our friends at the Partners in Flight V (PIFV) meeting taking place in Snowbird, Utah. We are delighted to spread the word about PIF's great work to advance migratory bird conservation. For more information on the meeting, see pifv.org.

Participants are working hard at PIFV to create conservation business plans for migratory birds. Photo by Bob Johns.

By Bruce M. Beehler

My first trip to the chilly heights of Snowbird coincides with my first-time attendance of a Partners in Flight conference. It turns out we have all come to the mountaintop to develop a new roadmap for the conservation of migratory birds. By taking a page from our colleagues in the business world, we are seeking to match nature conservation thinking with the sharp realities of business planning—clear metrics, fixed time-tables, clear budgets—even employing mathematical modeling of potential conservation outcomes based on level of capacity and input.

This is a mindset that has taken hold at the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and even though I am a newcomer to that organization, I am already a believer. If we want the corporate and financial world to invest much more for migratory birds—which we do—we need to talk their talk and walk their walk. That is where the money is, and we need to provide a compelling case to these smart and demanding potential supporters.

Let's take the best tools of the business world and apply them to the best thinking for bird conservation. That seems to me to be a win-win.

Bruce Beehler is Director for Bird Conservation, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation