One of Connecticut’s oldest and largest insurance firms is facing blowback this week after attempting to drop coverage for an Audubon Society chapter located in upstate New York due to its concerns that the group was engaging in environmental advocacy.

The Southern Adirondack Audubon Society says it received a letter from The Hartford — the company whose namesake is the city where it was founded in 1810 — in early April notifying the group that its business policy would not be renewed once it expires this summer.

The stated rationale for the decision, according to a copy of the letter shared with The Connecticut Mirror, was that the insurer had learned the Audubon chapter was operating as an “environmental protection organization.”

Rob Snell, the president of the chapter, said he was floored when he saw the letter and the company’s explanation.

“We don’t do any advocacy work,” Snell said in an interview. “We take people out bird watching … We have weekly programs that cover anything from being a beekeeper to the state of snapping turtles in upstate New York, to, you know, bluebirds. They’re all informational, educational. That’s what we do.”

The group took out the policy last year, Snell said, in order to insure an antenna being installed on the roof of a local college to track bird migrations. The group doesn’t own any other property or buildings and has not made any claims on the policy, he added.

After following up through their broker, Snell said the chapter received a longer written explanation stating that The Hartford is “not a market for associations who look to protect analyze, or monitor the environment against misuse or degradation from human forces.”

The company also pointed to language on the chapter’s website stating that its “primary goal is to protect the environment by preserving natural habitats and promoting environmental education,” as well as the political advocacy of the National Audubon Society, of which the chapter is a member.