72nd NWF Annual Meeting   Keystone, Colorado 2008

Volunteer of the Year

This award is given to stellar volunteers in recognition of their success in leading restoration work in their communities.  It is a symbol of NWF's appreciation for volunteers' contributions and their dedication to protecting wildlife and wildlife habitat.

Pat and Dale Bulla - Community Volunteers of the Year

Pat and Dale Bulla have become well-known for their almost decade-long efforts to protect wildlife habitat in Central Texas.  As retired educators and NWF Habitat Stewards, the Bullas effectively combine teaching with their passion of caring for wildlife as they freely share their time and native plant wildlife habitat knowledge with others.  They have inspired many with their native plant habitat backyard which has been twice-featured by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center's Austin Garden Tour.  They have also been honored with several awards for their wildlife and native plant habitat conservation efforts that helped restore the Stenis Tract of the Bull Creek Watershed.  The Tract is now part of the City of Austin’s Bull Creek Water Quality Protection Lands.

Peter Brann - Affiliate Volunteer of the Year

Peter Brann, partner in the law firm Brann and Isaacson, contributes countless pro bono hours representing the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM).  Specifically, Brann and his firm defend the NRCM against paper giant Verso and Rumford to demand that they reduce their pollution of the Androscoggin River.  Paper-mill pollution of the Androscoggin River served as the inspiration for Ed Muskie to draft the Clean Water Act over ten years ago.  The battle to enforce the Act's regulations continues and the health of the Androscoggin River is a major statewide issue in Maine.  With Brann leading the charge, the future of the Androscoggin River and Maine's fish and wildlife are in good hands.

Toni Stahl and Marc Apfelstadt - Volunteer of the Year

Habitat Ambassador Hosts Toni Stahl and Marc Apfelstadt tirelessly work with their volunteers and local officials in Columbus, Franklin and Delaware, Ohio counties to create schoolyard habitats, community certified wildlife habitats and backyard habitats.  They have defined an environmental badge for the Girl Scouts, promoted backyard habitats at the Columbus Zoo, designed a wildlife landscape around the Cincinnati Zoo's "Why Plants Matter"-themed Conservatory and organized the first and highly successful NWF garden tour in central Ohio.  The couple represented NWF at the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources and Wild Ones Conference as they presented their NWF-certified backyard 6-year study results.  Their efforts have been featured in local media and conservation newsletters and in a movie called "Weeds, Where the Grass Ain’t Greener."

National Conservation Achievement Awards

Legislative Achievement - honoring those who have made a special effort to protect or restore the environment or natural resources through use of the law or elected office

Senator Jeff Bingaman

New Mexico's Senator Jeff Bingaman is the Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee (ENRC).  He also serves on the Finance Committee, where he chairs the Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources and Infrastructure.  A longtime ally of NWF, Bingaman has fought to protect New Mexico's and the nation's environment.  Under his leadership, the ENRC has defeated several proposals to sell public lands and safeguarded environmental laws against oil and gas industry activities.  Bingaman most recently led the Senate effort to successfully enact the Energy Indpendence and Security Act, which improves vehicle fuel economy standards, expands the production of renewable fuels, and introduces other newly-raised efficiency standards.

Special Achievement - Recognizing individuals for exemplary conservation achievement.

Doris Morris

As the Communications Director of the North Carolinians Opposed to the Outlying Landing Field (NO-OLF), Doris Morris worked together with NWF and the North Carolina Wildlife Federation to defeat the building of a landing strip near the Poccossin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge.  Her indefatigable efforts in the 6-year long battle against the U.S. Navy, the North Carolina Congressional Delegation, and the Virginia Congressional Delegation were inspirational.  Doris engaged the community as she led strategy sessions, tractor rallies and met with Senator Dole to ultimately secure NO-OLF's win.  As a result, she has protected several large migratory populations of waterfowl as well as large populations of red wolves and black bears east of the Rockies.

Edward Mazria

Edward Mazria is an internationally recognized architect who is focused on providing buildings with cutting-edge energy-efficient architectural design.  He is the recipient of numerous awards including a Commercial Building Award from the Department of Energy and Pioneer Award from the American Solar Energy Society.  Through his worldwide lectures and many published works, including The Passive Solar Energy Book, Mazria encourages architects to join him in his focus on innovative design methodology.  In 2002, Mazria took his activism a step further by founding the 2030  ^oChallenge (http://www.architecture2030.org/), which urges architects to work together toward the movement's goal: for all new building designs to be carbon-neutral by the year 2030.

Black Bear Conservation Committee

The mission of the Black Bear Conservation Committee (BBCC) is to promote the restoration of the Louisiana Black Bear in its historic range through education, research, and management of habitat and bear populations.  Understanding that species restoration requires widespread support, the BBCC set out to establish partnerships in their mission.  During the BBCC's 17-year effort to promote the black bear's recovery, they successfully brought together political and occupational interests that historically took opposing sides of issues.  They effectively balanced the issues of and gained support from agricultural and energy industries, private landowners, universities and interested citizens.  Their incentive-based and cooperative approach to wildlife conservation serves as a win-win program model for all involved, especially the Louisiana Black Bear.

Charlie Shaw Conservation Partnership Awards

In honor of the late Charlie Shaw, NWF recognizes individuals whose spirit and actions reflect, as his did, the value and possibility of the partnership between NWF and its affiliates.

Andy McDaniels

Andy McDaniels, former Executive Director of the Oklahoma Wildlife Federation (OWF), believes in the value of unifying diverse interests in pursuit of a common goal.  To that end, he created the Conservation Coalition of Oklahoma, whose members include the Sierra Club, the Nature Conservancy, the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma and others.  The Coalition has become a formidable force promoting Farm Bill and State Wildlife Action.  Andy's commitment to conservation is matched by his visionary prowess.  Seeing the need to reconnect youth with nature, Andy guided the OWF to contribute to the purchase of land for public access.  With the help of Andy's leadership, OWF has become a diverse conservation organization and an effective voice for all Oklahomans.

Sarah Gannon-Nagle - National Wildlife Federation

Sarah Gannon-Nagle embraced the challenge of managing National Wildlife Federation's State Wildlife Action Project.  Through her innovative outreach approach, she quickly enabled more than ten states (five more than originally mandated by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation) to become leaders in promoting wildlife conservation using State Wildlife Action Plans.  Sarah's contribution to the success of NWF's State Wildlife Action Program includes organizing conference calls, providing strategic advice, organizing media events and helping with key communication products.  But perhaps her most notable contribution to the program's success is her personally created and maintained website http://www.statewildlife.nwf.org/.  Sarah has gone above and beyond her job description to the far-reaching benefit of our nation's wildlife.

Recognizing a NWF affiliate organization for outstanding conservation accomplishment and collaborative efforts with NWF and its supporters.

The Conservation Federation of Missouri

The Conservation Federation of Missouri (CFM) has become the state's leading voice for conservation, its sphere of influence today going far beyond the hunter/angler focus of its origin.  Through many innovative programs CFM engages the whole community as it seeks to protect Missouri's wildlife and wild places.  Its Conservation Leadership Corps encourages high school and university students to become activists by offering them a unique opportunity to influence conservation policy and actions.  And Share the Harvest, a program begun in 1992 through which hunters donate their harvested deer to the needy, now delivers over 300,000 pounds of venison to food banks across the state. 

Tom Lustig

Since joining NWF as a staff attorney in 1979, Tom Lustig has been an able and effective advocate for wildlife on behalf of NWF and its affiliates in the courts, agencies, and Congress.  His efforts to ensure that federal public land agencies follow the laws and embrace policies that protect wildlife and their habitats have secured important victories for wildlife throughout the West.  Although he always wore a bow tie in court, on less formal occasions, Tom appeared in public as a cow, a chef and a moose.  Despite his sartorial peculiarities, (or, perhaps, because of them) Tom has won precedent-setting cases ensuring wildlife access to federal land; improving livestock grazing practices; securing wilderness protection; defending the public's right to participate in federal lands decisions; blocking attempts to privatize public lands; and protecting wildlife from ski development, surface coal mining, oil and gas development, timber cutting, road building, game ranching, and land exchanges.  There are many special landscapes that are viable for wildlife today because of the efforts of Tom Lustig.  His conservation legacy is spread across the West; it is up to all of us to ensure his victories are maintained.