Portland Audubon has officially dropped “Audubon” – as well as “Portland” – from its name.

The local bird conservation and education organization will now be known as Bird Alliance of Oregon, it announced Tuesday, following a year of work to replace its problematic namesake.

“It’s really an exciting opportunity for us an organization for us to reintroduce ourselves to the community,” executive director Stuart Wells said. “I also say that you can’t tell the whole story about the organization with the name.”

Of course, they did try. After announcing its intention to change the name last February – part of a national movement among Audubon Society chapters to create distance from their namesake, John James Audubon, an American naturalist who also enslaved people and was an avowed supporter of slavery – the organization fielded suggestions from the public and conducted internal discussions about what a name should ultimately say.

The name should nod to their work in conservation, Wells said, and should include a sense of unity, especially since reaching out to marginalized communities was a major impetus behind making the change. They also wanted to note the organization’s work beyond the Portland area, with so many programs in places like the Oregon coast and southern Oregon.

Wells said the organization also wanted a name that indicates it works with birds, which “Portland Audubon” doesn’t necessarily do.

“There’s nothing in that name Audubon that says anything about birds, except for folks in the know, so in and of itself it’s sort of exclusive and restrictive,” he said.

In the end, it all came together as Bird Alliance of Oregon.

This will be the fourth name for the organization since it was founded in 1902. It was previously known as Oregon Audubon Society, Audubon Society of Portland and Portland Audubon.

The ultimate goal is to “create an inclusive and welcoming organization and community for everyone,” the organization said in its announcement Tuesday. Retaining the name of Audubon was determined to be a “major obstacle to that work.”

“We heard from many staff, volunteers, and community members who are people of color, specifically Black, that it’s painful to bear the name of a slaveholder at the place where they work or volunteer, or to wear a shirt with our name on it,” the organization said in a news release.

The movement to drop “Audubon” was first sparked in 2022 by the Seattle chapter of the national organization, which is now known as Birds Connect Seattle. The national Audubon Society also considered changing its name, but ultimately backtracked, announcing last March that while it condemned Audubon’s actions, “the organization transcends one person’s name.”

Wells said Bird Alliance of Oregon will still work with the Audubon Society as an affiliate organization, though he acknowledged that the name change inherently creates some distance between the two, even if it’s implied.

And while he said he anticipated some pushback, Wells said the response so far has been overwhelmingly positive. The community’s willingness to adapt to change was not only heartening, he said, it reminded him, naturally, of the creatures he works to protect.

“As a Black man, I recognize that there’s times when you want to be able to extricate yourself from an uncomfortable situation,” Wells said. “Having the versatility, that flexibility to be able to maneuver, birds have that.”