At the December NAS Board meeting in Santa Barbara (CA), NAS President John Flicker presented his vision for Audubon Centers in the year 2020, which the Board of Directors unanimously endorsed and adopted. Audubon has always stood for science-based education and advocacy, with a solid tradition of chapter volunteers working hand-in-hand with national staff, and a legacy of protecting birds and their habitat. Building on our strong foundation and springing from our 1995 strategic plan, Audubon 2020 Vision provides the road map for our evolution over the next twenty years -- as the most effective community-based environmental organization in the country.

Audubon members will have many opportunities to discuss this vision over the next year. Your comments and suggestions are welcomed -- it will be exciting to work together to plan for and implement these ambitious goals. Please send your thoughts and ideas to John Flicker at: jflicker@audubon.org.

2020 Vision for Centers

John Flicker, NAS President and CEO

In 1995, Audubon adopted a visionary strategic plan that called for establishing state offices and Audubon Centers across the country. Nineteen state offices have already opened, and we are well on our way to a state office in every state. The primary goal of each state office will be to establish and operate a network of Audubon Centers. An Audubon Center is a community-based program located on protected land that is used by Audubon or one of our partners to save land and to engage people in environmental education and conservation action. Audubon Centers will be permanent institutions in the community that teach conservation values, and that serve as local hubs for conservation action. Like schools, churches, libraries or museums, Audubon Centers will be part of the community, will be supported by the community, and will add real value to the community.

Our vision for the future is bold and ambitious. By the year 2020, Audubon will have 50 state offices. Each state office will support an average of 20 centers, for a total of 1,000 centers nationally. Audubon Centers have a clear mission that defines Audubon in the next century: to save land and to engage people.

Save Land

We know that protecting habitat is essential for the survival of birds and wildlife. But it is equally important to save land for people. People will protect what they value, and will value what they understand. That understanding happens out-of-doors, in the natural world, on the land. Audubon will therefore protect land that is important habitat for birds and wildlife, and that is also accessible and usable by people for educational purposes. Our goal is for each Audubon Center to protect an average of at least 1,000 acres, resulting in an Audubon sanctuary system of over one million acres.

Engage People

Community-based Audubon Centers will create a new model for social activism for the next century through:

Environmental Education

One in every four schoolchildren in each state will visit an Audubon Center each year. Audubon will also become the leading advocate in each state for establishing environmental education standards in the school system and for funding these standards.

Conservation Action

Centers will reach out to all segments of the community to form partnerships and to engage people in a way never before undertaken by a national conservation organization. Each Center will serve as the focal point for conservation activities in that community. They will be resource centers where people can learn how to shape the environmental future of their community.

Joining and Volunteering

With community-based programs, we expect at least one percent of the people in America to join Audubon, for a total of 2.7 million members. An average of 500 people at each Audubon Center will do even more by volunteering their time and effort, for a total of some 500,000 volunteers working to improve their communities.

Through this community-based infrastructure, Audubon will be the most influential and effective conservation organization in the world. From a thousand communities, involved citizens will forge the environmental solutions of the next century.

Photo Caption: Audubon's Los Angeles programs are focused on urban youngsters, many of whom have little opportunity to explore the natural world Photo by: Bruce Farnsworth