ABSTRACT
The National Audubon Society is involved with a large variety of issues across the country. The Audubon directive adds, "while working to eliminate persistent and highly mobile pesticides and toxic substances that poison the food chains of natural ecosystems." The Audubon Society has a long record of opposition to the exclusive use of chemical pesticides. The chapter describes a couple of the major environmental goals of the Society. Environmental costs include the massive disruption of complex biological communities and the loss of function of some of these communities. For example, early applications of DDT essentially eliminated bird and insect predators in certain areas and threw the whole local food web out of kilter. Audubon's concern is the maintenance of the whole complex of interdependent species and the abiotic environment, not just crop ecology.
