Limpkin November 2004

Audubon Assembly 2004 Report

By Tom Atkinson

This is the fifth year that Audubon of Florida has held its annual Assembly. The purpose of the assembly is to involve chapters in setting conservation priorities for Audubon of Florida for the coming year. This year was somewhat special in that we all got to meet for the first time AOF new executive director, David Anderson. At every opportunity, Mr. Anderson tried to drive home the point that “We are all Audubon,” national, state, chapters and centers.

Audubon chapters have worked together for more than 100 years with a common interest in birds, wildlife, and natural history. Working in local communities around the state, chapters deliver environmental education, conservation and nature appreciation through field trips, influence conservation policy and hold monthly meetings and community events. Audubon of Florida (AOF) works with the 43 local chapters. AOF wants to reach the grassroots of Florida to support national, state and local conservation initiatives, enhance environmental education, and develop citizen advocates.

In an attempt to involve chapters in the planning process, Audubon Conservation Committees were established through the Audubon of Florida Board of Directors in March 2000, as a chapter-inclusive process for conservation decision-making in the state of Florida. Instead of one statewide Conservation Committee, the Board of Directors of Audubon of Florida adopted a regional approach to facilitate more participation by chapter leaders and allow chapters within a region to utilize the conservation committees to develop common strategies on issues that impact regional natural resources. Regions are organized to take into account the ecosystem areas of the state. Committee areas largely follow the boundaries of the state’s Water Management Districts. The purpose of the regional conservation committees is to recommend conservation priorities to the Audubon of Florida board, engage in regional conservation planning and resource development, engage in collective action and conduct training and chapter development workshops. The process was developed five years ago to allow Audubon of Florida to respond to chapter initiated conservation priorities has, over time, shown the need of further development to become more effective.

Last year, this process of chapters identifying priorities, sending them on to the regional committees who in turn sent them along to the AOF Board and Assembly worked well up to a point. The problem was that there were 43 priorities that made it through the process and they were all lumped together without any emphasis of one over the other. This has proven to be unwieldy so not a lot was accomplished. This year, the Assembly (with a lot of staff input) divided the existing priorities into three categories.

The categories are: (a) Public Policies; (b) Ecosystem and place-based conservation priorities and (c) Issue statements. Each group of priorities will be treated differently in connection with allocation of staff time and money. For actually for getting things accomplished, the emphasis will be on the Ecosystem and place based conservation priorities where AOF intend to take a prominent leadership role. Staff feel that the workload, resources and development strategies associated with this more limited list is manageable. These will have a strong science base, a commitment of chapter, regional and state effort, and have action plans to reflect that commitment.

I, for one, feel that we really accomplished something at this year’s Assembly and hope that everyone will support Mr. Anderson when he says, “We all have to say, and mean WE, when we try to preserve wildlife habitat in the name of Audubon.” Only if we all work together will we have any chance of success.