Peter Berle, 69; led Audubon Society

Peter A. A. Berle, 69, a former president of the National Audubon Society who sought to broaden the environmental agenda of the venerable group and show that it was, he said, "no longer just for the birds," died Nov. 1 in Pittsfield, Mass.

Mr. Berle died of injuries from an accident in August, when the roof of a barn on his Stockbridge, Mass., farm collapsed as he was dismantling it, his family said.

A pioneering environmental lawyer and former New York state conservation commissioner, Mr. Berle (pronounced Burley) led the National Audubon Society from 1985 to 1995, when financial problems underscored a need for the group to reexamine its goals and public identity.

Convinced that Audubon should expand its base beyond bird watchers, he launched a reorganization that was at times painful, particularly when he tried to remove the great egret as Audubon's symbol and replace it with a flag.

Objections from the rank and file subsided when Mr. Berle acknowledged he had made a mistake, but he did not retreat from his larger objective: to help Audubon grow as an advocate for the environment, as concerned with the habitat of humans as of birds.

"He had an early vision . . . for the sustainability and livability of cities," said Glenn Olson , executive director of Audubon California. "Most of the areas Audubon was trying to protect were outside of cities. Peter brought it back into cities."

An early champion of "green" architecture, Mr. Berle spearheaded the renovation of a century-old Manhattan brownstone into an eco-friendly showcase to house Audubon's staff. Called Audubon House, it was ahead of its time when it opened in 1992, featuring nontoxic building materials, sensors that automatically turned off lights, desk-side recycling chutes and compost heaps on a rooftop garden.

To Mr. Berle and the 10,000 Audubon members who helped underwrite its $24 million cost, the building made a statement that Audubon had widened its scope.

"Today we can't protect birds by building bird feeders and acquiring sanctuaries alone," Mr. Berle said in 1992. "They are threatened by larger-scale dilemmas related to the way we use land and resources on a global basis."

Mr. Berle channeled resources into fighting global warming and lobbied to toughen the Endangered Species Act. He fought for the preservation of wetlands in California, promoted educational jaunts in the Everglades for inner-city children, and opposed oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Born and raised in New York, Mr. Berle received a law degree from Harvard. During the Vietnam War, he served in the Air Force as an intelligence officer and parachutist.

He then joined the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind & Garrison, where he and another junior lawyer drew the unenviable assignment of litigating against Consolidated Edison, which wanted to erect a pumping storage facility on a scenic mountain overlooking the Hudson River Gorge. Their victory forced the utility to ameliorate any environmental damage.

In 1971 he founded Berle, Butzel & Kass, one of the country's first environmental law firms, and waged a successful suit against Union Carbide Corp. for fouling underground water on Long Island with pesticides. As a New York state legislator, he played an integral role in the expansion of Adirondack State Park.

From 1976 to 1979, he was state commissioner of environmental conservation and helped set in motion the cleanup of the Love Canal toxic waste dump at Niagara Falls.

Mr. Berle is survived by his wife, Lila Sloane Wilde; four children; a sister; and 13 grandchildren.