On August 7, the Audubon Council of Pennsylvania recognized Jim Bonner, Executive Director of Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania, with the Walt Pomeroy Conservation Award in a presentation ceremony in Villanova.
This award is built on the tradition inaugurated by the Audubon Council of Pennsylvania to honor individuals who had made important contributions to conservation in Pennsylvania.
The presentation took place as part of an informal luncheon attended by several Chapter and Bird Town Pennsylvania leaders.
Bonner’s nomination was unanimously endorsed by the Pennsylvania Audubon Council Board.
The award recognizes Jim’s leadership throughout his 21-year career at ASWP in addition to his leadership in conservation efforts in the greater Pittsburgh region. Bonner will be retiring in September.
Under his watch, ASWP expanded programming, added a Native Plant Nursery, and added ADA trails at Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve in Allegheny County.
The organization also established two additional centers in Butler County.
Bonner 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.
Bonner was part of the coalition that first established “Lights Out Pittsburgh.”
More recently, he has contributed to the adoption of several environmentally friendly ordinances by the Pittsburgh City Council, including one that permits property owners to grow native plants without fear of a previous “weed ordinance.”
Another recent highlight is ASWP’s active role in the expansion of the Bird Town Pennsylvania Program.
Bonner and his staff established many new Bird Towns in southwestern Pennsylvania counties.
Finally, Bonner is counted among the cadre of chapter leaders that spearheaded the work to reestablish the Pennsylvania Audubon Council. He has served as the Council’s Treasurer over the last five years.
The award is a framed limited-edition print of a Peregrine Falcon, originally created by the Lycoming Audubon Society to help fund that chapter’s Peregrine reintroduction project in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
Past Recipients
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 Pomeroy was a great friend of Audubon here in Pennsylvania as well as throughout the former six-state Audubon MidAtlantic Region.
Pomeroy served Audubon for seventeen years in the 1980s and 1990s. He 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.
Pomeroy provided immeasurable support to chapters and chapter leaders, establishing Audubon Councils in each of these states.
Regular Council meetings were used to help coordinate the chapter network.
Pomeroy was integral to the formal incorporation of the Audubon Council of Pennsylvania and the reestablishment of the Pennsylvania Audubon Council.
The Pennsylvania Audubon Council is an independently incorporated IRS 501(c)3 organization.
The Council serves as a coalition of the Pennsylvania Audubon chapters, who are each independently incorporated in Pennsylvania. Our leadership is comprised of chapter representatives elected each year by the chapter network.
For more information, contact Leigh Altadonna, President of the Pennsylvania Audubon Council at [email protected].
(Photo: Leigh Altadonna, Jim Bonner and Lin Pomeroy.)
[Posted: August 11, 2025] PA Environment Digest