The National Audubon Society has been an army of activists since its beginning. In fact, its various units -- the state societies -- sprang up spontaneously and individually throughout most of the country in the 1890s. As its name implied, the National Association of Audubon Societies was incorporated in 1905 as a federation of the state societies, which remained as independent organizations with their own officers and dues-paying members.

Today that structure is further broken down and de-centralized as the organization is supported by 500,000 members in 518 chapter scattered across North and Central America. Many members are active at the grassroots level, working through their local chapters, state councils, and professionals of all kinds on the Society's staff to influence legislators, bureaucrats, and public opinion.

Audubon chapters play pivotal roles in controversies over permits to alter wetlands, lobby for the funding of restoration in marshes and other critical habitat, and publicize wetlands projects and issues in their local news media. A sampling of activities in the upper Midwest illustrates the variety of chapter activities:

Detroit Audubon Society

came to the defense of Point Rosa Marsh off Lake St. Clair when it was threatened by a marina development.

Greater Cleveland Audubon Society

manages wetlands which provide stopovers for ducks and geese. Those wetlands form the core of effective local education programs.

Vermilion Audubon Society

outside Danville, Illinois, has taken part in marsh restoration projects.

Madison Audubon Society

in Wisconsin has managed the nearby Goose Pound Sanctuary, which is important to a wide variety of ducks, geese, and swans. Members take part in the restoration of both prairie and wetlands.

Evansville Audubon Society and the Hoosier Audubon Council

in Indiana are active in pressing for more funding for the Patoka National Wildlife Refuge, where bottomland hardwood forest offers secure habitat for Wood Ducks.

The eight Audubon chapters in the San Francisco Bay Area

spearheaded the successful effort to double the size of San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge to over 40,000 acres.

A program linking Audubon activists around the country originated in the National Policy Office in Washington, D.C. Its staff has organized the Audubon Refuge Keepers (ARK) and started holding workshops in states such as California, Florida, North Carolina, and Washington to bring chapter leaders together with the staffs of National Wildlife Refuges. The goal is to increase the visibility of, and support for, the refuge system. The Fish and Wildlife Service receives skimpier funding than any of the other major federal land agencies. (Congress give it only $2.14 per acre of its holding, while the National Park Service, which manages less land, receives $14 per acre.)

So far, ARK groups have reached out into their communities to make service clubs such as Kiwanis, sportsmen's organizations, and schools aware of the benefits that wildlife refuges bring to local areas. Children take part in visits to see waterfowl and learn about the importance of refuges to migrating birds. This program has also established a support group in the lower 48 states for Alaskan refuges isolated from population centers but with over 70 percent of the refuge lands.

In New Mexico, the Albuquerque Audubon Society "adopted" Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. Its members work closely with the refuge staff and make sure that waterfowl are the chief beneficiaries of management programs. As a local activist remarks, "If you protect water out here, you protect waterfowl." In addition, Audubon volunteers have been eradicating exotic salt cedar trees and re-establishing native cottonwood and willow riparian vegetation.

A potential area for widespread waterfowl conservation that has often been neglected by environmentalists are the wetlands on military bases. The Mesilla Valley Audubon Society in south-central New Mexico, however, seized an opportunity to protect one of the most valuable wet habitats in the region. During the 1980s, this chapter signed a cooperative agreement with the Bureau of Land Management to carry out bird surveys on a 122-acre wetlands near the Holloman Air Force Base.

A couple of years ago, the chapter's leadership became concerned about the impending transfer of the site to the Air Force. At the same time, a costly new water treatment facility planned at the base called for disposing of excess water in lined evaporation ponds. Chapter leaders approached Air Force officials at Holloman (which is the world's only home for operational F-117 Stealth Fighter Aircraft) with an imaginative plan. Why not direct this excess water into the nearby wetland, keep it available to re-charge local groundwater, and at the same time create additional waterfowl habitat?

The idea triggered a cooperative project at Holloman which included the Air Force, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the New Mexico Environment Department, and the Mesilla Valley Audubon Society. Eventually the wetlands were expanded to 170 acres, including 1.2 miles of dikes, new water control structures, and four spillways.

"We look at it as a real win-win situation for everyone involved," an officer at Holloman commented. And so, apparently, do the ducks.

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