Press release by PA Audubon Council on 11 August 2025
(left to right) Nilesh Shah, President of the Liberty Bird Alliance; Heidi Shiver, President of Bird Town Pennsylvania; Leigh Altadonna, President of the Pennsylvania Audubon Council; Jim Bonner, Executive Director of the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania; Lin Pomeroy, Benefactor of the PAAC Walt Pomeroy Fund; Christine DuBois-Buxbaum, Editor of the Bird Town Pennsylvania “Bird Beat;” and Janet Krevenas, Secretary, Bird Town Pennsylvania
Jim Bonner, Executive Director of the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania (ASWP), received the Walt Pomeroy Conservation Award in a presentation ceremony in Villanova on August 7, 2025. The award is in the form of a limited edition framed print of a Peregrine Falcon donated to the Council by the Lycoming Audubon Society. The print had originally been commissioned by Lycoming Audubon to help fund its program to reintroduce the Peregrine Falcon as part of several sites in the Commonwealth. Lycoming Audubon took the lead in the Peregrine reintroduction project in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The award presentation took place as part of an informal luncheon attended by several Chapter and Bird Town Pennsylvania leaders.
Jim’s nomination was unanimously endorsed by the Pennsylvania Audubon Council Board. The award recognizes Jim’s leadership throughout his twenty-one-year career at ASWP in addition to his leadership in conservation efforts in the greater Pittsburgh region. Under his watch, ASWP expanded their Nature Center at Beechwood Farm and established two additional Centers in Allegheny and Butler Counties. He has been a leader in the protection of the Little Buffalo Creek Watershed and Important Bird Area. His environmental work with economic justice communities has been inspiring and important. Jim was part of the coalition that first established “Lights Out Pittsburgh.” More recently, Jim has contributed to the adoption of several environmentally friendly ordinances by the Pittsburgh City Council including one that permits property owners to use native plants and no longer threatened by a restrictive “weed ordinance” that discouraged homeowners in the past. Another recent highlight is ASWP’s active role in the expansion of the Bird Town Pennsylvania Program. The work of Jim and his staff at ASWP established many new Bird Towns in Allegheny and Butler Counties. Finally, Jim Bonner is counted among the cadre of chapter leaders that spearheaded the work to reestablish the Pennsylvania Audubon Council. Jim has served as the Council’s Treasurer over the last five years.
This award is built on the tradition inaugurated by the Audubon Council of Pennsylvania (ACP), to honor individuals who had made important contributions to conservation in Pennsylvania. Past recipients of the Conservation Award in the 1990s included: Governor Robert P. Casey; Sr., Congressmen Peter Kostmayer and Jim Greenwood; Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources, Dr. Maurice K. Goddard; and others. In 2022, the Pennsylvania Audubon Council reestablished the “Walt Pomeroy Conservation Award” in the tradition of ACP. It is a fitting tribute to honor the memory and legacy of Walt Pomeroy. DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn was the first individual to receive the “new” award in 2022, and Daniel Klem was honored with the award last year.
Walt was a great friend of Audubon here in Pennsylvania as well as throughout the former six-state Audubon Mid-Atlantic Region. Walt served Audubon for seventeen years in the 1980s and 1990s. Walt was responsible for the establishment of many of our chapters here in Pennsylvania as well as Delaware, New Jersey, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. Walt provided immeasurable support to chapters and chapter leaders. Walt established Audubon Councils in each of these states. Regular Council meetings were used to help coordinate the chapter network. Walt was integral to the formal incorporation of the Audubon Council of Pennsylvania and the reestablishment of the Pennsylvania Audubon Council.
