NJ Audubon Partners With Donald Trump
We call on NJ Audubon to Dump the Trump
Hate has no place in NJ conservation. Period.
The NJ Audubon Society has entered into a 10 year partnership with Donald Trump.
Trump personally praised NJ Audubon for agreeing to that relationship: (proudly broadcast from the NJA website)
I take great pride that the … NJ Audubon recognizes and validates the environmental contribution we have made with the original design of our two world class golf courses in Bedminster. They currently provide for over 200 acres of habitat for indigenous and migratory grassland birds. With this partnership we look forward to their professional guidance in further improving and expanding the habitat at this wonderful property.” said course owner Donald J Trump.
In exchange for unknown consulting or contract fees, NJ Audubon has agreed “to partake in a habitat restoration project on their Bedminster, Somerset County, NJ facility.”
The facility NJA vaguely refers to is Trump National golf course.
Golf courses are inherently bad environmental actors – they use enormous amounts of water, fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides and destroy hundreds of acres of natural habitat. I would say that NJ Audubon is putting lipstick on a pig, but I won’t insult pigs.
But this partnership has far more meaning and significance than water pollution and NJ Audubon’s craven and unprincipled “entrepreneurial” pursuit of consulting contract revenues from billion dollar corporations in exchange for providing green cover.
Donald Trump is a dangerous, racist bigot and demagogue.
Gov. Whitman frisks black man in Camden NJ, on patrol with NJ State Police
Recently, in a national opinion piece, even former Governor Christie “frisk” Whitman denounced Trump and compared him to Hitler and Mussolini:
It is no longer a stretch to compare Donald Trump, and some of the other current Republican candidates for president, to some of the worst dictators in history. Trump especially is employing the kind of hateful rhetoric and exploiting the insecurities of this nation, in much the same way that allowed Hitler and Mussolini to rise to power in the lead-up to World War II. The parallels are chilling. In pre-WWII Germany, the economy was in ruins, people were scared, and they wanted someone to blame.
But NJ Audubon CEO Eric Stiles has praised Trump:
“Trump National is demonstrating an outstanding commitment to sustaining native wildlife populations.” said Eric Stiles, President for New Jersey Audubon. “They are solidifying a symbiotic relationship with the surrounding community to foster environmental awareness and a conservation ethic while enhancing wildlife and natural systems in New Jersey.“
Even if that praise were true, it is shameful now, given Trump’s repeated racist, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, and misogynistic remarks, while in the national media spotlight.
Trump needs to be denounced by all people of good will. Silence is complicity.
So, today, we openly call on the members and Board of Directors of NJ Audubon to publicly terminate the Trump partnership relationship and sever all ties with Trump.
Here are the names of NJ Audubon’s Board Members – we urge our readers and NJ media to contact them and make the same demand.
Should NJ Audubon be unwilling to dump the Trump, we call on all dues paying members, financial contributors, and Foundations that support NJ Audubon to withhold all financial support until they do so.
NJ Audubon’s major donors – individuals and corporations – can be seen on page 13 of this financial report.
NJ Audubon’s fellow Trump corporate stewards include some of NJ’s largest and premier blue chip companies, like PSE&G, Johnson & Johnson, JCP&L, Verizon, Mannington Mills, Dupont, South Jersey Gas, Atlantic City Electric, and United Water.
We urge that major donors be asked to pressure NJA to Dump the Trump.
Silence or failure to act will be perceived as support of Trump.
This has nothing to do with partisan or electoral politics.
Hate has no place in NJ conservation. Period.
