Cormorants photographed throughout the Golden Gate Audubon Society’s 2019 Christmas Bird Count.
One of the Bay Area’s oldest preservation groups is altering its name to distance itself from its name — a recognized slaveholder and anti-abolitionist.
Members of the Golden Gate Audubon Society recently validated the choice of its Board of Directors to formally alter the name of the organization to Golden Gate Bird Alliance throughout its yearly conference.
According to the preservation group, the name modification was done after months of consideration “to express its dedication to addition and highlight the value of cumulative action in safeguarding regional birds and wildlife.”
“Our brand-new name will help make the organization more available to a more comprehensive variety of individuals,” executive director Glenn Phillips said in a declaration. “With the dangers dealing with birds today, we require everybody to be able to safeguard them.”
The name modification becomes part of an across the country reevaluation of John James Audubon as a token for the nation’s oldest and biggest bird preservation network.
When the National Audubon Society revealed in March that it would not alter its name, a variety of chapters consisting of Golden Gate progressed with their own name conversations.
Golden Gate members enacted favor of getting rid of “Audubon” from their name in April, setting in movement a months-long procedure of outreach, conversations and voting to come up with a brand-new name for the chapter.
“(John James) Audubon, a 19th century biologist and pioneering bird artist, was likewise a servant holder, anti-abolitionist, and a burglar of Native American graves — a history that weakens efforts to build a varied, inclusive organization,” the group said.
The group included that it will keep its association with the National Audubon Society and its relationships with other chapters throughout the nation.
This is not the very first time that the preservation organization has actually altered its name. Founded in 1917 as Audubon Association of the Pacific, the group altered its name to Golden Gate Audubon Society in 1949, a year after signing up with the National Audubon network.
The Berkeley-based Golden Gate Bird Alliance is among the Bay Area’s oldest preservation companies, with over 3,000 members. The not-for-profit is devoted to safeguarding Bay Area birds, other wildlife, and their natural environments.
