Our mission is to protect birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow, throughout the Americas, using science, advocacy, education and on-the-ground conservation. We achieve this through a variety of programs that engages our communities, learning about our local ecosystem, which builds interest in protecting our wild spaces. 

Located 16 miles south of downtown Dallas in Cedar Hill, Dogwood Canyon is part of the White Rock Escarpment. Nowhere in North Texas can one find a greater variety of rare species than in Dogwood Canyon. Plants and animals from east, west and central Texas converge here, making the canyon the only place in the world where one can find the Black-chinned Hummingbird of west Texas nesting in the flowering dogwood tree of east Texas.

Audubon owns or manages over 200 acres of nearly pristine wildlife habitat in the canyon, and because the property neighbors university, county, and state lands, it is part of a nearly 3,000 acre greenbelt in southwest Dallas County. 

From its inception in 2011, Dogwood Canyon Audubon Center has been welcoming visitors to its sanctuaries and inviting them to participate in nature education programs. This innovative approach—preserving open space not just to protect wildlife and native habitat from people, but to actively engage people in its conservation through learning and exploration—served as a model for Audubon and other nature education centers nationwide and influenced the development of place-based experiential learning as a highly effective pedagogical practice.