Paintings as Protest: Bethlehem Artist Depicts Birds That Might Soon Lose Their Home

Gwendolyn Evans, a local artist and activist, is painting the 162 birds that rely on the wetlands at Green Pond County Club for a home. She hopes that these paintings will slow the plans to build homes on the area.

The Audubon Society of the Lehigh Valley have declared the property an important birding area, but hosing developer Traditions of America has submitted plans to build 265 new homes on the land.

The plan has caused conflict in the township commission. Several residents seek to keep Green Pond undeveloped and protect the birds that live there, while Traditions of America insist that they have taken the habitat into due consideration.

“They’re in our neighborhood and they’re extraordinary,” Evans told the Express-Times. “We should be thrilled we have the (bird habitat). We should be finding township money to maintain it.”

The paintings will be given to the township commissioners. Evans has already given several of these paintings to the commissioners, once at a public meeting.

Commissioner Thomas Nolan said that while the Township appreciates the gesture, “It’s too soon to tell” what will happen with the development plans.