There are over 20 Audubon chapters in Pennsylvania with over a handful in the Greater Philadelphia area. The National Audubon Society is an American nonprofit environmental organization. Its mission is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, with a focus on birds and other wildlife. The society seeks to preserve habitats for the benefit of humanity and biological diversity and was incorporated in 1905. Audubon Nature Centers provide scientific and educational programs and advocacy to promote positive conservation efforts and experiences.

60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Philadelphia features three “Audubon” hikes. One hike explores the grounds of Rancocas Nature Center, which border the Powatan Renape Indian Reservation inside Rancocas State Park. Another unique hike explores the original homestead of John James Audubon, in whose honor the Audubon Society was named. Audubon, a Franco-American ornithologist and naturalist, inspired generations of artists and conservationists with his studies and his artistic anthology, Birds of America. More than a few of the birds studied and recorded in this print collection have since been deemed extinct with Birds of America serving as a pictorial history of their existence. Few people realize that Audubon’s original American homestead lied within 30 miles of Center City Philadelphia.

I recently returned to another “Audubon” hike, on the grounds of Honey Hollow in Solebury Township. The preservation of this diverse tract of land by local farmers in the late 1930s attracted national attention and served as one of the first examples of successful water, soil and wildlife conservation in the United States. With the sprawl of the 1970s and 1980s in the greater Philadelphia area, this park most certainly would have been gobbled up by developers were it not for the unsung heroes of conservation. 

As we put the finishing touches on the page proofs of 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Philadelphia I cannot help but think of the thousands of individuals whose inspiration and efforts made these places possible. The Audubon Society, albeit the oldest such nonprofit in the United States, is certainly not the only conservation group who had the foresight and the guts to stand up to big business that is often blinded by short-term greed. Powatan Renape Chief Roy Crazy Horse says it best in “A Message To Our Doubly-Arrogant Generation,”(www.powhatan.org/ageneration.html):

Ours is the arrogant generation, which has taken upon ourselves to use an eternity’s resources for our own benefit.

  . . . We do not consider the birds and animals, the plants and forests, when we seek “progress and “development.” We do not honor our Mother Earth and her gifts. We do not respect other peoples in other places. We act as if the Creation exists solely for our own benefit. Corporate profit triumphs. Exploitation becomes virtue.

  . . . We still hold the keys to the future: our Original Instructions as human beings. It is not too late for all those who came here from elsewhere to adopt a new way of life, which is the oldest way of life on this land. It is not too late to seek balance, to sustain a future, to establish in our time a new economic order, which puts people, not profits, first.”