Who Are We
Male Wood Duck. Photo courtesy of Matt Saunders.
Mission Statement
Winnebago Audubon encourages people to enjoy and protect birds, other wildlife, and their habitats through recreation, education, conservation, and restoration of the natural environment.
Winnebago Audubon aims to accomplish this by providing our community with quality programs, field trips and events that engage people, especially families and children, in nature-oriented activities to raise awareness of our natural world.
We serve Winnebago County and the southern Fox Valley region of Wisconsin. We are one of over 500 local, volunteer-based chapters of the National Audubon Society, including 14 chapters in Wisconsin. We share National Audubon’s vision to protect birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow.
Brief History of Winnebago Audubon
Winnebago Audubon Society, Inc. is a 501(c)3 non-profit educational organization that was created in fall of 1980 by members of a local environmental group, Save Wetlands and Natural Systems (SWANS). SWANS’s treasury was donated to the new Audubon chapter. Katherine Rill was acting president.
Edward Brigham (right) presents Katherine Rill (center), Winnebago Audubon President, and Anita Carpenter (left), Winnebago Audubon Vice-President, with the permanent Charter in National Audubon.
Its Provisional Charter was presented to Winnebago Audubon Society on April 19, 1981 by National Audubon Assistant Regional Director Steve Hiniker.
The 115-member chapter was awarded its permanent charter in May 1982 by Edward Brigham, the North Midwest Regional Vice-President of the National Audubon Society, after two years of local activities. Brigham commended the chapter for its varied array of projects and programs.
Purposes and Goals (as written by Katherine Rill for our 10 Years . . . and Counting anniversary booklet in April 1991)
For years the main interest of the National Audubon Society was birds, but it soon became obvious that birds do not exist in a vacuum. The concerns of the National organization were expanded to include “the conservation and protection of the natural environment which supports both humankind and wildlife.” So this is what the Audubon Society is all about . . . the protection of the natural environment so that it can continue to support all forms of life.
Our Chapter goals, of course, include those of National Audubon and might be expressed as: The promotion of a healthy environment for all living things through education about the environment and action to protect it from damage; to foster an appreciation of the natural world through programs, fields; and interaction with others of like interests.