Environmental Advocacy

American kestral

Photo credit: Ron Winch

The St. Paul Audubon Society is one of the state’s most active Audubon chapters for grassroots advocacy on environmental public policy issues affecting birds and habitat. Members and friends of the Conservation Committee work on a variety of local, state and federal environmental initiatives:

• Public education on a new garbage burner in St. Paul (Rock-Tenn)
• Support for stronger state penalties for off-highway vehicle wetland destruction
• Support for state renewable energy goals
• Support for federal reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.

The committee has coordinated letter and phone call campaigns at members meetings, coordinated speaker symposiums and coordinated grassroots activity with other environmental organizations. Join us and add your voice to important issues affecting birds and habitat.

Once a year, all chapters gather to discuss state environmental policy issues. Chapter members are encouraged to participate in a collaborative discussion with other Audubon members, chapters and the state office staff each year during Audubon Minnesota’s Fall Members Meeting, held the second Saturday each November.

Audubon members from across the state gather to hear expert presentations on the most current environmental issues in the state. Members discuss and vote for the top priority issues, thus determining the focus of lobbying and advocacy resources during the following year’s state legislative session. St. Paul Audubon members turnout en masse for this event and it is an excellent opportunity for education, collaboration and networking.

In the Fall, 2009, SPAS Conservation Committee members are pursuing possible action and advocacy on tar-sands oil drilling in Alberta, mountain-top removal coal mining, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, as well as other issues.