Stephen C. Quinn, senior project manager for the American Museum of Natural History Department of Exhibition, was the special guest speaker for the event. Steve is a lifelong member of Bergen Audubon and his experiences go back to the founders of the club, which included his own parents.

Steve reminisced on how birders rushed out to see a Northern Mockingbird, a rare sighting in New Jersey back then, and remembered how excited everyone was to watch a skein of Canada Geese fly overhead. He recalled the original habitats where BCAS searched for birds, many places that have now vanished.  

Dave Hall has also witnessed the many changes that the Bergen County landscape has experienced over the many years and has been in charge of field work.

“Where the county once had thousands of acres of open lands, marshes and forests, it now has parcels under distress, and most of the original habitat has been lost,” Dave told us. “The key open spaces are now held by government agencies (state, county or town parks, airports, even the sewage treatment plant) or by resource vendors (water company, harbor master), but only rarely in private reserves such as Greenbrook Sanctuary.”

“BCAS is doing its best to bring public recognition to the value of each of these remaining habitats, so that they are not degraded further,” Dave continued. “The challenge for the future is to improve the habitat values of those remaining open spaces, such as the remediation efforts happening in the Hackensack Meadowlands in several county parks.  The new butterfly garden at Overpeck Park is a great example of what is possible through volunteer efforts.  But it will take major investments to accomplish changes such as the restorations happening on the Richard Kane tract in the Meadowlands.”

There were many people that were remembered during the evening’s event, including all devoted birders and conservationists that were responsible for bringing BCAS through the first 70 years. Names like Joan and Dewey Clark, Paul Einert, Bob Dykstra, George Laury, Jean O’Blenis, and Duncan Wood, among others, all faced the many challenges of their time to make sure Bergen Audubon not only survived but thrived.

Our job now is to make sure Bergen County Audubon is there for everyone for the next seventy years. Our challenges are numerous. We all need to be working together to make sure the land that is still left for wildlife not only remains, but is also eventually improved to benefit wildlife.

As our part of the state becomes more urbanized, we need to get more people away from TVs and computers and introduce them to/educate them about the wonderful wild places that still remain in the Bergen County area. We need to teach them how to care for and appreciate such places.

We need to give school children more opportunities to learn more about the wildlife and nature that is alive all around them and let our representatives know that children in the urban environment want and deserve to learn about nature the same as children everywhere do. If we fail to encourage and nurture the next generation’s love of the natural world, then there will be no reason to have any Audubon Society.

We owe the same hard work and the same commitment to all those people that came before us who worked so hard, sacrificing a big part of their lives to ensure that we would still be here in 2011. Happy birthday Bergen County Audubon Society. Here is to the next seventy years!

Bergen County Audubon Society is the local chapter of the National Audubon Society. For more information, go to