Conservation
Audubon Naturalist Society’s history of advocacy dates back to its founding in 1897 when a group of people who strongly objected to the killing of egrets and herons for their feathers helped push local laws that forbade any bird destruction. Check out the ANS Advocacy milestones ever since.
Timeline of ANS Advocacy
1918 |
ANS rallies support for the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. | |
1920 |
ANS members and supporters help organize the first federal bird-banding efforts. |
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1930 |
ANS endorses a Senate Bill protecting the bald eagle; bill becomes law in 1940. |
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1939 |
ANS protects Virginia’s Roaches Run, then threatened by airport development. |
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1950s |
ANS testifies on Capitol Hill in support of conserving the natural beauty along the 185-mile Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal, walking with Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas on his historic eight day hike from DC to Cumberland, Maryland in opposition to a highway planned for its entire length. |
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1960s |
ANS supports the neighbors and friends of Glover-Archbold Park when a superhighway from Georgetown to Bethesda was slated to cut the park in half. |
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ANS opposes the Three Sisters Bridge, an eight-laner planned from Interstate 66 near Sprout Run in Arlington to Canal Road in Georgetown. |
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1993 |
ANS works in coalition to fight Walt Disney Company who wanted to build a theme park near Manassas National Battlefield Park. Disney withdraws proposal a year later. |
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1994 |
ANS Water Quality Monitoring Program begins. |
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1997 |
ANS serves on steering committee to help found Coalition for Smarter Growth. |
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2005 |
ANS appointed to 36-member Tysons Corner Land Use Task Force, three years later wins unanimous vote from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on its Vision and Areawide Recommendations for Tysons. |
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2010 |
Fairfax County adopts Stormwater Utility Fee because of ANS advocacy; fee generates millions annually for steam restoration, infrastructure replacement and dam safety. |
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2013 |
ANS leads the formation of the Save Ten Mile Creek Coalition to protect the DC metro region’s emergency drinking water supply at Little Seneca Reservoir by protecting Ten Mile Creek. One year later, the Montgomery County Council unanimously approves a Limited Master Plan Amendment for Ten Mile Creek that limits pavement in the most sensitive areas, mandates open space, provides buffers for wetlands, streams and groundwater springs and advances a 65% forest cover goal for the entire watershed. A victory for Ten Mile Creek! |
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2015 |
ANS launches Communities for Clean Streams to influence local clean water policies to produce cleaner streams for the DC metro region. |