Founder

In the fall of 1992, Kay and Jim Charter realized that many of their favorite bird species were in decline. Migrating species like Baltimore Orioles, Scarlet Tanagers, Indigo Buntings and warblers were losing ground every year. Unwilling to stand by helplessly and watch the downward slide of these beautiful creatures, the Charters decided to take action. They sold their lakefront home and used the proceeds from the sale, and their retirement savings, to purchase a 47-acre tract of mixed habitat where they established a safe haven for the feathered jewels they love.

Nine years later, in the summer of 2001, Kay and Jim Charter along with Bobbie Poor and Anne Stanton founded Saving Birds Thru Habitat. This organization is dedicated to the cause of teaching others about the challenges facing our migrating birds, pollinators and others, and instructing them about how to help resolve those problems. Kay created many engaging PowerPoint programs, including “Grow a Bird Feeder,” “A Tale of Two Cities – How to Save Birds With Habitat,” “Batty about Bats,” “Bees, Butterflies and Other Pollinators,” and others, addressing the causes for these tragic losses, and it demonstrates how everyday people can make a positive difference wherever they are.

It would take pages to list all of Kay's many accomplishments, but a few of note are:

  • Conducting educational programs at numerous venues across the US
  • Working with the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy on prairie restoration at the Acadia Dunes Grassland
  • Helping a West Texas rancher initiate the Balmorhea Texas Bird Fest
  • Participating in Habitat for Humanity's Flower and Garden Show for 10 years
  • With Doug Truax establishing Nature North with 28 organizations which ran for 5 years
  • Serving on Fairmont Mineral's Sustainable Development team for 7 years and recommending habitat restoration at sites in 7 states (resulting in a Certificate of Exceptional Merit from the National Wildlife Federation and a Corporation of the Year award from Michigan Audubon for Fairmount.)
  • Helping put together a Beaver Island Birding Trail and annual birding festival which also inspired locals to save a large boreal forest on the Island Inspiring the restoration of a wetland for wintering birds in Texas
  • With Dave Watkins establishing the Ronald Brown Academy with Detroit Public Schools
  • Meeting with Congressional leaders in Washington to lobby for birds in 2019 and 2023
  • Receiving a $150,000 grant for conservation education in the west

Kay stepped down in November 2023 after decades of hard work and passionate advocacy for migrating birds.

"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. So obvious that few had seen that before her. Kay’s devotion to providing that habitat for birds has inspired and guided me ever since. Thank you Kay!"

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 rather than introduced flora in their yards to support nesting songbirds.