About us
Our Chapter
The Umpqua Valley Audubon Society was incorporated as an Oregon non-profit on March 19, 1977. We received our 501(c)(3) Internal Revenue exemption by determination letter issued in July, 1981. We most recently revised our by-laws on September 14, 2011.
Board Meetings are generally on the 3rd Wednesday of the month—skipping December, June & July. Meetings begin at 5:30 pm; locations vary. For more details, to confirm the next meeting date, time, or location, or to get something on the agenda, contact any of the board members.
UVAS leadership:
President—Diana Wales
Secretary—Stef Neyhart
Treasurer—Bill Fuller
Board Member/President Emeritus—Mark Hamm
Board Member/Birder’s Night-Field Trip Coordinator —Stacy Burleigh
Board Member/Program Coordinator – Kathy Vejtasa
Board Member/Education Outreach – Donna Prchal
Board Member/Conservation Chair – Ellen Porter
Board Member – Liz Gayner
Outreach Coordinator (AmeriCorps) – Tracy Maxwell
Recognizing the strength that comes from diversity in both natural systems and human communities, we welcome all people, regardless of race, gender identity, sexual preference, age, levels of physical, cognitive, and social ability or citizenship status. We will continually seek to advance and prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion through our programs and partnerships.
We acknowledge the people who came before us on this land called the Umpqua, whose name graces our organization and the river that flows through this land. Here for thousands of years, loving this land and living in harmony, the Umpqua are still giving us gifts of action and wisdom. We make this land acknowledgement in recognition of the Umpqua.
National Audubon
Protecting waterbird populations has been part of Audubon’s mission even before the official establishment of the National Audubon Society. Outrage over the slaughter of millions of waterbirds, particularly egrets and other waders, for the millinery trade led to the foundation, by Harriet Hemenway and Mina Hall, of the Massachusetts Audubon Society in 1896. By 1898, state-level Audubon Societies had been established in Pennsylvania, New York, New Hampshire, Illinois, Maine, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, Minnesota, Texas, and California. In 1900, Audubon member Frank M. Chapman launched the first Christmas Bird Count – Audubon’s all-volunteer holiday census of early-winter bird populations – as an alternative to the traditional Christmas “Side Hunt,” in which hunters competed to kill as many birds (and mammals) as possible.
In 1901, state-level Audubon groups joined together in a loose national organization, which helped to establish the first National Wildlife Refuge in the U.S. – Pelican Island, in Florida, in 1903 – and facilitated the hiring of wardens to protect waterbird breeding areas in several states. In 1905, the National Audubon Society was founded, with the protection of gulls, terns, egrets, herons, and other waterbirds high on its conservation priority list.
In 1918, President Wilson signed the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA), which remains to this day one of the strongest laws protecting wild North American birds. Shortly after the passage of the MBTA, Audubon established its first system of waterbird sanctuaries in seven states along the eastern coast of the U.S., and thus initiated the implementation of large-scale, scientifically-based bird conservation efforts.
For more information about the National Audubon Society – 
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