In some sad news, former National Audubon Society Director of Ornithology John C. Ogden passed away over the weekend. John worked for Audubon twice – In 1974 he began a 14-year stint as National Audubon’s senior research biologist and director of the Ornithological Research Unit in Tavernier. There he conducted long-term ecological studies of wetland vertebrates while overseeing NAS’s national avian research programs in Maine, New York, Florida, Texas, and California.

Ogden spent the first half of the 1980s in California, where he co-directed the California Condor Research and Recovery Program for NAS and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. From 1988 to 1995, he was senior research scientist for the National Park Service at Everglades National Park, serving on multi-agency technical planning teams dealing with Everglades restoration. He signed on with the SFWMD in 1995, working as the senior ecosystem restoration scientist for twelve years and incorporating science and the concept of adaptive management into Everglades restoration planning.  He returned in 2007 to Audubon as Director of Bird Conservation for Audubon of Florida. There John shifted Audubon’s approach to Everglades restoration toward ecological results. He used his position to make the case to state and federal agencies that a new ecological approach to Everglades restoration planning was needed.

Audubon of Florida Executive Director Eric Draper said, “John Ogden’s love of birds and the Everglades and his commitment to science influenced everyone he worked with.  His passion and approach will not be forgotten.”