Dobbs Ferry Budding Birder Named CEO of National Audubon Society

Dobbs Ferry's David Yarnold remembers standing in Chelsea's in Hastings years ago with his daughter Nicole, who, at the time, was only 7 or 8 years old. 

"The owner of the store asked me what I did for a living," Yarnold recalled. "And without skipping a beat, my daughter responded: 'He used to cut down trees for a living; now he works to protect them.'"

Yarnold was recently named the president and chief executive officer of national wildlife conservation non-profit The Audubon Society—but despite the prestigious title, Yarnold still considers leading environmental organizations as a new and exciting second career.

Yarnold started his career in the newspaper industry on the west coast, working his way up the ranks ultimately to become the executive editor of the "San Jose Mercury News."

And in 2005, he was one of three Pulitzer Prize finalists for editorial writing.

"I wrote a series of more than 65 articles exposing corruption and unethical governing in the city of San Jose, which resulted in the resignation of a city councilman," he said. "Being recognized for your writing is as exciting as you can imagine, but having it actually make an impact on the community is what is really gratifying." 

Yarnold also has the distinction of working for the first newspaper to go online, where, he said, "all the action is."

Ironically, in the same year Yarnold received his Pulitzer nomination, he decided to leave journalism to work for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), a non-profit that seeks to identify and address the planet's most significant environmental issues. He has been their executive director for two years. 

"I have always been someone who loves the outdoors," Yarnold said. "I  felt I had already had an incredible opportunity to document the rise of Silicon Valley; I wanted to shift to my other passion, environmentalism."

Yarnold said he was lucky to have been hired based on his operations and communications skills, learning many of the deeper environmental issues on the job.

Since shifting professions, Yarnold is proudest of a program he helped initiate to make EDF Wal-Mart's environmental partner in China.

"It has been a terrific partnership to help cap greenhouse emissions and reduce energy use across all Wal-Mart suppliers in China," Yarnold said. "Wal-Mart is China's eighth largest trading partner, so this is a really important contribution. It does make me hopeful we can implement some of these energy-conserving measures in the U.S."

Yarnold, his wife Fran and daughter Nicole, who will be a freshman at Dobbs Ferry High School, moved to Dobbs Ferry in 2005.

A true member of generation internet, Nicole again influenced her father by helping him choose to leave EDF for the Audubon Society.

"She said, 'Well, you already downloaded the bird watching app. from Audubon, so you might as well run the organization,'" Yarnold said.

Though he admits he does not know as much about local birds as he would like, Yarnold has committed himself to an extensive cross-country bird watching trip to commence one week after assuming his post on September 1.

"I want to become a birder Audubon can be proud of," he said. "Birds are really heroic creatures. Some migrate more than 15,000 miles, losing 80 percent of their body weight."

He says his trip will start in the gulf—and another stop will, most definitely, be right here in Dobbs Ferry.

"I do three to six miles daily on the aqueduct path and constantly observe the wildlife," Yarnold said. "The Audubon Society works on the principle that you can use bird populations as a barometer of whether a particular ecosystem is thriving. It makes a lot of sense, really."

As president and ceo of the Audubon Society, Yarnold hopes to activate the Audubon network from the grassroots level to the national political level, concentrating particularly on ecological legislation. 

"Audubon integrates policy with education and grassroots organizing," he said. "For me, that's a winning formula."