SBTH Founders

Saving Birds Thru Habitat was incorporated in 2001 by Kay Charter, together with Marlin Bussey, Bobbie Poor, and Anne Stanton. The organization was created to share practical knowledge about the challenges facing birds and pollinators, and to help people understand how restoring habitat can make a difference.

Over the years, as Executive Director, Kay developed and presented a wide range of educational programs, including Grow a Bird Feeder, A Tale of Two Cities — How to Save Birds With Habitat, Batty About Bats, and Bees, Butterflies, and Other Pollinators. Through presentations, partnerships, and outreach efforts, these programs introduced many people to the idea that restoring habitat at home and in local landscapes can benefit birds and other wildlife.

Selected Accomplishments

  • Conducted educational programs at numerous venues across the United States.
  • Worked with the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy on prairie restoration at the Acadia Dunes Grassland.
  • Helped a West Texas rancher initiate the Balmorhea Texas Bird Fest.
  • Participated in Habitat for Humanity’s Flower and Garden Show for ten years.
  • With Doug Truax, established Nature North, a collaborative effort involving 28 organizations that operated for five years.
  • Served on Fairmount Mineral’s Sustainable Development team for seven years and recommended habitat restoration at sites in seven states. This work resulted in a Certificate of Exceptional Merit from the National Wildlife Federation and a Corporation of the Year award from Michigan Audubon for Fairmount Minerals.
  • Helped establish a Beaver Island Birding Trail and annual birding festival, which also inspired local efforts to protect a large boreal forest on the island.
  • Inspired the restoration of a wetland for wintering birds in Texas.
  • Worked with Dave Watkins to establish the Ronald Brown Academy with Detroit Public Schools.
  • Met with Congressional leaders in Washington to advocate for birds in 2019 and again in 2023.
  • Secured a $150,000 grant supporting conservation education in the western United States.

Kay stepped down from her leadership role in November 2023 after decades of advocacy and educational work on behalf of birds and habitat.

“Five years before I wrote Bringing Nature Home, Kay wrote her award-winning book, For the Love of Birds. In it she outlined the most basic tenet of all animal conservation: birds, insects, turtles, bats—everything that walks, slithers, or flies requires food and thus the habitat that provides that food. Kay’s devotion to providing that habitat for birds has inspired and guided me ever since.”

— Dr. Douglas Tallamy

Douglas Tallamy is an American entomologist, ecologist, and conservationist and a professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. His books and lectures have inspired people across the country to plant native plants and restore habitat that supports birds and other wildlife.