Audubon Society

AUDUBON SOCIETY

AUDUBON SOCIETY, a citizens' organization that has been a major force in shaping America's wildlife protection and conservation movement. The society's roots go back to the latter part of the nineteenth century, when there were virtually no effective game laws: waterfowl were being shot by the wagonload to sell to restaurants; plumed birds were being slaughtered for feathers to decorate ladies' hats; and buffalo were being hunted almost to extinction. In an early attempt to protect wildlife, an Audubon society, named in honor of the artist and naturalist John James Audubon (1785–1851), was established in 1885 by George Bird Grinnell, editor of Forest and Stream. The organization lived only until 1888. In 1896, however, a group of women formed the Massachusetts Audubon Society and refused to buy or wear hats or clothing that used bird plumes. They also began lobbying politicians to protect birds, and their efforts led to the formation of a number of state Audubon societies; the membership included hunters who saw that without controls game would be wiped out, as well as other individuals who were appalled by the cruelty and waste in the destruction of wildlife. During the next several years progress was made at the state level, but it also became clear that there was need for a coordinated national effort for federal regulation. In 1905 twenty-five state Audubon societies joined to form the National Association of Audubon Societies for the Protection of Wild Birds and Animals. In 1940 the organization shortened its name to the National Audubon Society.

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During its first two or three decades the new national organization was concerned primarily with campaigning for bird protection laws and with direct protection of wildlife. But from its earliest days the society had broader wildlife and conservation interests. As early as the 1920s the society was actively campaigning for an international treaty to curb the menace of oil spills. In 1910 the society formed the Junior Audubon Club to educate children about the protection of birds, and in 1936 the society opened its first summer ecology camp for adults. Both efforts helped spearhead ecology instruction in the United States. In the 1960s and 1970s the Audubon Society focused its efforts on federal environmental policy. The society opened an office in Washington, D.C., in 1969 and urged passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, Wild and Scenic Rivers, and Endangered Species Acts. In the late twentieth century the society concentrated on protecting ancient forests in the Pacific Northwest, preserving wetlands, and preventing oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, the Audubon Society boasted 508 chapters in the Americas, a membership of 550,000, and 100 Audubon sanctuaries and nature centers.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Graham, Frank, Jr. The Audubon Ark. New York: Knopf, 1990.

Orr, Oliver H., Jr. Saving American Birds: T. Gilbert Pearson and the Founding of the Audubon Movement. Gainesville, Fla.: University Press of Florida, 1992.

Price, Jennifer. "When Women Were Women, Men Were Men, and Birds Were Hats." In Flight Maps: Adventures with Nature in Modern America. New York: Basic Books, 1999.

Robert C. Boardman

Flannery Burke

See also Conservation ; Endangered Species ; Environmental Protection Agency ; Ornithology ; Wildlife Preservation .