PORTLAND, Ore. —
Portland Audubon — the 120-year-old birding, educational and environmental organization — has a new name.
The change has been in the works for months, said Stuart Wells, executive director of the organization, with thousands of comments from the community as well as both internal and external listening sessions.
“This is a big change,” Wells said, before summoning all the requisite drama of a big unveiling. “The new name for Portland Audubon is... the reveal... Bird Alliance of Oregon.”
The name might strike some as anodyne at first glance, but Stuart said several factors played into the change.
First and foremost was the historical legacy of the organization’s namesake.
“Some folks know that John James Audubon was fantastic for artwork with birds and identified a lot of North American species,” Wells said. “But what isn't as well known is that he was a racist.”
He wasn’t just a racist, either. Audubon owned slaves and staunchly opposed the abolition of slavery. He also desecrated the graves of Native Americans and stole their remains.
And his influence lasted long after his death in 1851.
“We realized that right in our name, our former name, was a barrier to communities to be involved in the environmental movement,” Wells said.
Given the threats facing the environment, including the far-reaching impacts of climate change, Wells said the movement to protect natural spaces can’t afford to leave anyone out.
“It needs everyone to be at the table and to be able to provide insight and understanding as to how we're going to attack this major issue of environmental impact and climate change,” Wells said.
As for the new name itself, Wells said they identified early on that they wanted to have the word “bird” in the title, though they work on and advocate for many other types of animals. They also wanted something that embodied a welcoming vibe and reflected the organization’s work all over Oregon, not just in Portland.
“The overarching theme was that folks wanted a name that would represent unity, talked about birds and also provided an opportunity for us to talk about what we do across the state of Oregon,” Wells said.
The dilemma facing the organization has become a familiar one in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the country’s reckoning with its racist past.
Wells said he himself wrestled with the philosophical question underpinning the name change.
“Should we be identifying these things that have happened in the past and be removing them?” he said. “Or should we let them go because they happen in the past?”
For Wells, it was less about the actions of John James Audubon more than 150 years ago and more about how his legacy continues to reverberate today.
“The personal barometer for me is, does that still inflict harm on that particular group of people today. In this case, it's clear,” he said, noting that some volunteers with the organization were reluctant to even wear shirts that had Audubon’s name on them.
“For me and for this organization that that makes it a very simple answer,” Wells said. “We need to move that name away.”
The change was already underway Tuesday, with the organization passing out pamphlets announcing the new name. Some other changes, like signage, will take longer to switch over.
But while the logo on signs will change, the mission of the Bird Alliance of Oregon will remain the same as it’s always been.
The organization will still run its operations out of its headquarters in the Portland hills. It will still run its rehabilitation program, which helps roughly 4,000 injured and sick animals per year. It will still focus on education and advocacy, from the Willamette Valley to the coast to the sagebrush steppe in eastern Oregon.
But they’ll be doing so moving forward, Wells said, under a banner they hope will be more inclusive.
“This is an intentional name change to invite more people in,” he said, “to have a broader community engagement in nature and to provide us a sense of a place for folks that want to join in this, especially people of color who felt that there was a barrier to what we were doing.”