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History
Audubon California was formed in 1997 as the National Audubon
Society’s California Field Office. This was part of a national
effort to provide a stronger link between Audubon’s national and
local conservation activities. Establishing state field offices
has helped decentralize operations and strengthen relations
between Audubon chapters and the National Audubon Society.
Audubon California is responsible for setting its strategic
course, raising its own funds and accomplishing our mission
within California. We have a California board of directors
that, while serving in an advisory capacity, helps guide and
support Audubon California. Audubon California focuses on
three key strategies to accomplish our work: direct
conservation, policy & advocacy, and education & outreach.
A
Century of Conservation
Audubon
has been an environmental leader in California for a hundred
years, with much of the work being done at the chapter level,
and since the 1960s often in cooperation with national staff.
Audubon chapter leaders and staff have played a leading role
in the fights to save endangered bird species such as
California condor, peregrine falcon, California gnatcatcher
in California. The combined power of the National Audubon
Society and Audubon chapters was felt during the battle to
save Mono Lake with Audubon a key plaintiff in the 1994
court decision recognizing the “Public Trust Doctrine” and a
major victory on behalf of Mono Lake.
Audubon also manages a network of sanctuaries that have been
acquired over the years. In the early 1960’s Audubon
acquired the Richardson Bay Sanctuary on San Francisco Bay
as part of an environmental campaign to protect San
Francisco Bay. In southern Orange County Audubon’s Starr
Ranch Sanctuary includes 4,000 acres of oak woodland,
sycamore streamside forest and coastal sage scrub. Since
then a series of sanctuaries have been added including
Mayacamas Mountains, Kern River, Wattis and others.
Audubon has been involved in key environmental and
conservation issues in California from helping form the
Central Valley Habitat Joint Venture to helping win passage
of the Central Valley Improvement Act and major state bond
measures resulting in billions of dollars for conservation
work statewide, including Propositions 12, 13, 40 and 50.
In 2003, Audubon's scored a major victory for wetlands
conservation by helping the State of California acquire
16,000 acres of former salt evaporation ponds in San
Francisco Bay from Cargill, Inc. That same year, our Marin
chapter successfully completed a decade-long drive to
purchase and protect several hundred acres of bayland
habitat in eastern Marin County.
Audubon California remains at the forefront of a important
campaigns to save habitat and species, including the Salton
Sea, a globally significant Important Bird Area and home to
millions of bird species. Audubon California remains
involved at the forefront of the efforts to save the Salton
Sea today.
Connecting People to Nature
Through
vibrant education programs Audubon California and chapters
connect close to 100,000 Californians each year to nature
through field trips, camps and school programs. In 2004 Audubon
California opened the Audubon Center at Debs Park as a
nation-wide commitment to open nature centers in urban
neighborhoods, and thereby added to it Richardson Bay Audubon
Center along San Francisco Bay. At Starr Ranch, Audubon
scientist educators help students apply science to understanding
the natural world. In the coming years Audubon will continue to
build our network of environmental educators – volunteers and
staff – to ensure that the next generation of Californians is
committed to protecting California.
The
Coming Century
We
welcome all Californians to join with us to ensure that as
California continues to grow we ensure that the natural habitat
and species thrive, and that all of us have a chance to
experience California’s natural wonders.
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A California Condor surveys its home range over Lion Canyon.
photo courtesy USFWS Hopper Mountain NWR
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