By Linda Winnie
After organizing the first Bigfork Christmas Bird Count in 1974, Ron Lang hoped to start an Audubon chapter. Believing it required 40 members, and with the Bird Count group being smaller, he instead proposed a bird club. The resulting Bigfork Bird Club flourished, with many enjoying the close-knit, local focus on birding. Others, however, sought a broader mission. In the 1960s and 1970s, environmental issues gained national attention, and many Club members shared that concern. The National Audubon Society (NAS) combined birding with environmental advocacy, which appealed to these members. Since many were already NAS members, affiliation seemed natural.
In fall 1976, an NAS representative visited the Club to explain the process of forming a chapter and offered support. “We weighed the pros and cons,” recalls Rick Trembath, “and the pros won.” At the potluck following the 1976 Bigfork Christmas Count, members voted to become an official chapter. While some NAS requirements remained, the group began meeting as the Flathead Audubon Society.
Flathead Audubon’s first meeting was February 1977. The first issue of The Accipiter Express newsletter was mailed before the March meeting. It shows the chapter already engaged in environmental issues. The March program included presentations on both the proposed Great Bear Wilderness and the proposed Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, “the most important conservation legislation in 100 years.” The chapter’s first field trip was a two-day canoe trip down the Lower Flathead River, where the Army Corps of Engineers was proposing new dams. Details about an upcoming Polson hearing on this proposal were included.
Birding remained central. Two birding trips were announced, to the potholes between Bigfork and Somers, and to Kerr Dam, combined with a picnic meeting. The chapter built and sold birdhouses and feeders, and contributed six Wood Duck boxes to the new Swan River National Wildlife Refuge, where members were also doing monthly bird counts. Members also submitted daily checklists to Wanda Jamieson, third chapter president, for Wanda’s quarterly report to the NAS journal American Birds.
By May 1, 1977, the Flathead Audubon Society had fulfilled NAS requirements and was officially chartered.
In this same period, FAS leaders helped create another Audubon organization. In fall 1976, Dan Sullivan attended a meeting of Montana chapter presidents to discuss forming a cooperative alliance. At the time, four chapters existed in Montana; Flathead Audubon would soon be the f ifth. This group formed the Montana Audubon Council, which consisted of representatives from all the Montana chapters. The Council met twice annually, the site rotating through the chapter cities. In 1979, the chapters began pooling funds to hire a lobbyist for the state legislature. This Council later evolved into the independent organization now known as Montana Audubon.
In four years, 1974 to 1977, four successful institutions were born: the Bigfork Christmas Bird Count, the Lower Valley Bird Club, the Flathead Audubon Society, and the Montana Audubon Council, each with a significant, lasting legacy. We owe much to the small group of birders responsible for those beginnings.
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