The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

The Nature Conservancy honored Oregon’s “conservation heroes” today at its tenth annual Conservation Leadership Awards Luncheon. Held at the Oregon Zoo, the event brought together community and business leaders to recognize individuals, community partners, businesses and others for their leadership in conserving Oregon’s natural lands and waters.



“Oregonians are incredibly fortunate to have so many beautiful and important places worth protecting, and we're honoring the leaders who are helping to preserve that legacy,” said Russell Hoeflich, Oregon director of The Nature Conservancy.

The 2010 Conservation Leadership Award recipients are:



Lifetime Conservation Achievement Award — Cliff Heselton
Fascinated by how the natural world works, Cliff Heselton brought his curiosity with him to Oregon when he retired from a career in aerospace engineering to pursue a life of active conservation — as a volunteer for conservation organizations, as a gardener of native plants and trees, as a lifelong explorer of special places, and as a dedicated supporter of efforts to protect important habitats, including a significant expansion of Zumwalt Prairie Preserve. Cliff Heselton is a resident of Philomath.
 


Business Conservation Leadership Award — 
Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air

Helping protect the magnificent landscapes they fly over, Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air donate travel that enables Nature Conservancy staff in Alaska, Washington and Oregon to get to project sites and meetings. They also lead the way in developing technology and practices that save fuel, reduce waste, and advance environmental stewardship across the industry.



Community Partner Conservation Leadership Award — EarthShare Oregon
Founded in 1989, EarthShare Oregon is one of the most successful environmental workplace giving federations in the United States, providing a convenient way for working Oregonians and their employers to support conservation and healthy communities, and raising nearly $10 million for conservation in Oregon and around the world.



A year-long celebration of The Nature Conservancy’s 50th anniversary in Oregon was kicked off at the event with vignettes of a history of conserving important lands and waters across the state, including the recorded voices of leaders from each of the past five decades. Jonathan Nicholas, vice president at ODS, led the audience in a ceremony of making a wish for Oregon’s next 50 years. ODS is providing major support for the Conservancy’s 50th anniversary year.



The Oregon Chapter of The Nature Conservancy was created by 33 volunteers who met on February 25, 1961. The first three preserves in the 1960s were Camassia Natural Area in West Linn, Cascade Head Preserve on the central coast, and Sandy River Gorge Preserve east of Portland. Today, the Conservancy owns or cooperatively manages 49 preserves statewide and has helped to protect more than 505,000 acres in Oregon.Protected areas include the 33,000-acre Zumwalt Prairie Preserve in Wallowa County, the largest private nature sanctuary in Oregon.



“In each of our five decades, we’ve learned, grown and achieved more than any of us thought possible a few years before,” noted Hoeflich. “Oregonians now have a legacy of protected places in Oregon that is truly monumental, and our challenge is to answer the question, what should we save for future generations?”


About 375 people attended today's luncheon. Major sponsors of the Conservation Leadership Awards are ODS and The Oregonian.