The American Ornithologists' Union and bird conservation: recommitment to the revolution

Abstract

Exactly one hundred years ago, with North America in full-fledged environmental crisis, prominent members of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) participated in major political and social upheaval. A century of unrestrained exploitation had reached catastrophic proportions, with Passenger Pigeons and Eskimo Curlews representing only the tip of an iceberg. Birds as diverse as parakeet, egrets, ducks, terns, and plovers were plummeting. AOU leaders, led by one of the union?s founders and first editor of The Auk (J.A. Allen), had argued publicly and lobbied privately alongside civic leaders to establish the continent?s first wildlife protection laws and to monitor their consequences. Based on these efforts, the conservationist President Theodore Roosevelt would create over fifty national wildlife refuges by Executive Order and sign dozens of bills containing conservation statutes before leaving office. Today, we take for granted both the birth of the conservation movement and the crucial roles of government and scientists within it. A hundred years ago this was the stuff of revolution, and the AOU was intimately involved.

Parent Publication

• Bird Conservation Implementation and Integration in the Americas: Proceedings of the Third International Partners in Flight Conference. 2002 March 20-24; Asilomar, California, Volume 1 and 2

Citation

Fitzpatrick, John W. 2005. The American Ornithologists'' Union and bird conservation: recommitment to the revolution. In: Ralph, C. John; Rich, Terrell D., editors 2005. Bird Conservation Implementation and Integration in the Americas: Proceedings of the Third International Partners in Flight Conference. 2002 March 20-24; Asilomar, California, Volume 1 Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-191. Albany, CA: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station: p. 46-51