Detroit Audubon is now Detroit Bird Alliance
The bird conservation group changed its name to distance itself from its namesake.
Detroit Audubon has a new name. The bird-centered conservation nonprofit will now be known as Detroit Bird Alliance, the group announced last month. With the switch, the organization joins a growing number of local Audubon chapters to pick new titles.
“John James Audubon, who the organization was named after, was an enslaver, a eugenicist and not a conservationist,” said Gretchen Abrams, Detroit Bird Alliance’s executive director.
Listen: Full interview with Detroit Bird Alliance Executive Director Gretchen Abrams on why the organization changed its name
Local chapters in Chicago and Madison also announced name changes that include the phrase “bird alliance” around the same time as Detroit. Earlier in the year, Seattle Audubon became Birds Connect Seattle, the local Audubon chapter in Washington D.C. became Nature Forward, and some other local chapters have also changed their names.
The National Audubon Society has not announced any plans to change its name. Abrams says the Detroit Bird Alliance name will become official in January.
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