WOC Member Named Budweiser's "Outdoorsman of the Year"

WOC member Tory Taylor, a Dubois outfitter and wildlife conservationist, has been named the 2000 "Budweiser Outdoorsman of the Year." The award comes with a $50,000 grant from Budweiser that Tory will donate to a number of wildlife and natural-resource conservation organizations.

Tory has designated WOC as one of the grant’s beneficiaries. "The Wyoming Outdoor Council has a lengthy history of protecting wildlife habitat," he notes. "I am pleased to direct part of the Budweiser grant money towards WOC’s efforts to defend Wyoming’s wild places, clean air and water."

The Wyoming Wildlife Federation will receive the lion’s share of the grant, which will be used to help fund its Restoring Wild Patterns project, designed to document seasonal elk, deer, antelope and bison ranges; a signing project to promote public access to public land; and a "prairie ecosystem education box" to be used by students in a northeastern Wyoming school district.

Tory, a backcountry outfitter specializing in natural history horse-pack trips in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, has played an integral role in numerous wildlife conservation projects over the past 20 years.

He is also an outdoor writer, the author of two books on hunting and wildlife and has worked as a horse-packing course instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School, teaching outdoor skills and conservation ethics.

"This is one the greatest honors of my life," Tory says, "Budweiser’s Outdoors program is an outstanding example of how corporate America can roll up its sleeves and work with outdoor organizations to conserve wildlife habitat. The outdoors community needs all the help it can get and I hope other companies will follow Budweiser’s lead."