Nordgren Resigns Over Rift With Audubon Board

After just 18 months of serving as the first executive director of the Bedford Audubon Society in 95 years, Jim Nordgren is leaving his post.

His resignation was unanimously accepted by the board of directors, said Joan E. Becker, vice president of the board, but the terms were not amicable, said Nordgren. 

Nordgren boasted that the number of visitors to society headquarters at Bylane Farm in Katonah quadrupled, to 6,000 during his tenure.

But that may have led to his downfall.

"I think Jim wanted Bylane to become another Teatown [nature center]. Bylane Farm is a 300-year-old precious resource and we cannot be a neighborhood nature center, like Westmoreland Sanctuary," said Becker.

Change in leadership, differences in mission

When he interviewed for the job in 2009, he was most attracted to a mission statement he saw posted on Facebook, which said the organization promoted environmental education and grass-roots activism, said Nordgren.

"I thought, great! That is what I want to do. And I did that."

During his tenure, Nordgren initiated bird walks, night migration walks, an organic garden and gardening classes, a native plant garden, a garden at the Pound Ridge Elementary school and outreach on current issues like climate change and the gulf oil spill.

"But then the board members that brought me on left, and there's a new conservative regime. And they wanted to take out environmental education from the mission, focus on birdwatching, and stay away from any political topics. If they want to focus on birdwalks, they don't need an executive director for that," he said.

The mission statement on the BAS website reads differently than the BAS Facebook page and does not explicitly mention environmental education.

"But it is part of what we do," said Walter Fowler, who was recently elected Audubon president. He praised Nordgren's accomplishments but criticized the manner in which he approached them.

"Jim did a lot of good at Bedford Audubon—he was a shot in the arm and gave us new perspective," he said. "He provided an auspicious beginning to a new chapter for the organization."

But Nordgren and Fowler did not share a "think global, act local" philosophy.

Instead of focusing on national issues, like the Gulf Oil Spill—which the National Audubon Society "does a very good job covering," Fowler would have liked to see a greater emphasis on reducing pollution in and cleaning up of local resevoirs. 

"Our donors who support our work—that we do on a very limited budget—would like to see us focus on local and regional issues," he said.

Nordgren felt that it was his job to highlight how national issues affected birds, and plan programs that remedied the problems.

"They don't want to focus on climate change, yet the bobolink is suffering from global warming. They didn't want me to host a talk on the oil spill—but I did anyway—because it was too political. I think we need to talk about these issues and how they impact birds and people."

The organic, bird-friendly garden that Nordgren started with master gardener Cathy Clare is one way Nordgren wanted to combat climate change. Growing organic food keeps birds pesticide-free and healthy, he said.

Nordgren claims one of the new leaders [he declined to name which one] said they wanted nothing to do with organic gardening. "They said 'I never saw a tomato on the cover of National Audubon [magazine],' and yet, the next month, our organic garden was featured in that publication."

"I think they'll do away with the garden, and back away from the Pound Ridge elementary garden, which is a shame," he said.

Nordgren's departure may bring some changes, but doing away with the garden is not one of them, said Becker. "In fact, Cathy Clare and I are going on a field trip to visit an organic garden soon. We would like to see it continue."

The BAS plans to fill the executive director position, said Becker. "It's a very exciting time for us—we have our centennial coming up in 2010-13, we're wrapping up our hawk watching, working on a historical rag runner, and we are making connections with other regional audubon societies to further our advocacy work."

Fowler added that he had nothing negative to say about Nordgren.

"He had very good ideas and worked hard. We hope he finds his niche."