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2008 Thomas W. Keesee Jr. Conservation Award Luncheon
Peter Berle, Former President of National Audubon Society

Peter Berle

Peter Berle spent decades fighting for open space and clean water as a New York State assemblyman, commissioner of the State Department of Environmental Conservation and president of the National Audubon Society. Berle’s passion for the outdoors coincided with the rise of the environmental movement in the early 1970s. A lawyer, he founded Berle, Butzel & Kass, one of the first firms in the country devoted to the new field of environmental law. As a member of the State Assembly, he played an important role in the passage of some of New York’s earliest environmental laws. He took a department that had been focused on stocking lakes with trout for fishing and transformed it into a watchdog on behalf of the state’s air and water quality.

Berle was a skilled outdoorsman from his youth. He skied competitively, was a vigorous hiker and swimmer, and served as a paratrooper and intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force. With both undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard University, he was drawn to politics largely because of his belief in environmental protection. As a New York State assemblyman, he led the floor fight during the 1970s that helped preserve the Adirondack Park’s “forever wild” character.

Governor Hugh Carey appointed him chief of the Department of Environmental Conservation, where he was involved in the first regulatory actions at the Love Canal chemical dump at Niagara Falls, and where he took a stand against General Electric for polluting the Hudson River with dangerous chemicals known as PCBs. He also directed the purchase of vital conservation land.

Berle took a particular interest in expanding state lands in the Adirondack Park, which encompasses about six million acres. In 1977, he oversaw the state’s purchase of more than 9,000 acres in the park, including 11 of the highest peaks in the Adirondacks.

After leaving state government, Berle returned to his Manhattan law practice. In 1985, he became president of the National Audubon Society. As Audubon’s president, he overcame a fiscal crisis to build a rich environmental legacy. It included the purchase and renovation of the Audubon headquarters in downtown Manhattan, a pioneering model for “green building,” and the defense, throughout his tenure, of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In his campaign to save ancient forests, Berle succeeded in forcing the U.S. Forest Service to reduce their logging by about 90 percent, thereby rescuing millions of acres of trees which are still standing.

In addition to his efforts to save the northern spotted owl, Berle showed unwavering support for the California condor program. During the mid-1980s, when many Audubon members protested the idea of developing a captive-breeding program, preferring to let the species go extinct “with dignity,” Peter supported the recovery effort, and today there are 301 condors in the world population, up from 23 in 1982.

In 1992 Berle co-authored a handbook on how onecould go on a carbon dioxide diet to reduce global warming. It was written 16 years ago, and is nothing short of visionary.

Mr. Berle is survived by his wife, Lila Slona Wilde; four children, Dolf Berle of Pasadena, Calif., Mary Berle of Stockbridge, Beatrice Berle of Hoosic, N.Y., and Robert Berle of Charleston, S.C.; and 13 grandchildren.