Environmental Leader Peter Berle Dies at 69

STOCKBRIDGE, Massachusetts, November 5, 2007 (ENS) - Peter Berle, former president of the National Audubon Society, a New York State assemblyman, and a New York state Commissioner of Environmental Conservation died Nov. 1 from injuries sustained on his farm in the Berkshires this summer. He was 69.

Berle [pronounced Burley] was involved in almost every environmental issue that has engaged the nation over the past 30 years.

A lawyer, he founded Berle, Butzel & Kass, one of the first environmental law firms in the United States. He served three terms in the New York State Assembly, representing a district on Manhattan's Upper East Side, and helped to pass some of the state's first environmental laws.

Govenor Hugh Carey named him commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation in 1976 and he used his position to work for cleaner air and water in New York.

Berle was instrumental in the first regulatory actions at the Love Canal chemical dump at Niagara Falls, and he worked to end pollution of the Hudson River with PCBs by General Electric.

Berle chaired the Task Force on the Future of the Adirondack Park under Governor Mario Cuomo. He served on U.S. EPA advisory groups on the Clean Air Act, and on Biotechnology during the first Bush administration, and was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the Joint Public Advisory Committee to the North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation, established under the NAFTA environmental side agreement.

He served as president and CEO of the National Audubon Society and publisher of Audubon Magazine from 1985-95.

"Peter Berle led Audubon during an important time in the environmental movement," said Audubon CEO and President John Flicker, who succeeded Berle in 1995. "Peter made sure our voice in Washington was strong during critical debates on legislation like the Clean Air Act and on important conservation programs like the national wetlands protection efforts."

Berle said he wanted Audubon to be "an effective force for change."

In 1991, Berle spearheaded the innovative renovation of Audubon House, the headquarters in New York, considered the first green building in New York City. "It was an opportunity to build a structure that would both save Audubon money and provide a model for others to replicate," Berle told TIME magazine.

After leaving Audubon, Berle hosted "The Environment Show," a syndicated program produced at WAMC, Albany-based public radio.

Berle was also president of Sky Farm Productions Inc., which produced programs for public television called "The Environmental Minute" designed to increase public awareness and sensitivity to environmental issues.

He served as a member of the New York Independent System Operator Board of Directors since 2000. There, said NYISO Chair Karen Antion and President and CEO Mark Lynch, he contributed significantly "to the development of the NYISO as operator of New York’s bulk electricity grid and administrator of the State’s wholesale electricity markets."

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer said today, "It is with great sadness that we mourn the loss of Peter A.A. Berle, an extraordinary leader whose passion for protecting the environment and civic commitment contributed greatly to this state. With Peter's passing New York has lost a giant in the environmental movement."

In lieu of flowers, the Berle Family request donations can be sent to the National Audubon Society or the Stockbridge Land Trust. Checks should be made out to either organization and sent to Peter Berle Memorial Funds, c/o Kelly Funeral Home, 3 Main Street, Lee, Mass 01238.

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