Tom Bell Honored as Conservationist of the Year

by Nancy Debevoise

To the roar of a standing ovation, WOC and High Country News founder Tom Bell accepted the National Wildlife Federation's highest award for his lifetime contributions to wildlife conservation and environmental protection.

Tom traveled to Georgia in early March to accept the J.N. "Ding" Darling Conservationist of the Year Award, named for NWF's visionary founder. Past recipients of the award include President Jimmy Carter, oceanographer Sylvia Earle and naturalist Roger Tory Peterson.

"Tom Bell has been a one-man conservation movement," said NWF president Mark Van Putten in presenting the award. "He has waged dozens of successful battles to protect the wild wonders of Wyoming, the Northern Rockies and Northern Great Plains, inspiring and empowering countless others to follow in his footsteps."

"For decades," noted the award citation, "Bell has fought the misuse of the land and environment by entrenched political and business interests, tackling issues ranging from clear cutting on national forests to illegal fencing on BLM lands and misguided predator-control policies. He has crusaded against proposed damming of the Green River and the illegal privatization of public land, battled for special protection of Wyoming's Great Divide Basin, fought destructive oil and gas operations and helped secure passage of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. His personal involvement has been cited as the primary reason that Wyoming, Montana and other nearby states were successful in passing progressive protection against the ravaging of their lands."

Tom fought many of his early battles using the bully pulpit of High Country News, which he launched in 1970.

"High Country News is a testament to Tom's vision," said NWF regional board member Craig Thompson of Rock Springs. "The paper has done more to make people understand and fight the threats to the health of the West than anything I can think of."

In addition to founding WOC in 1967 and continuing to be its guiding conscience, Tom's active engagement in the work of numerous other conservation groups groups, including the Land Trust Alliance, the Sierra Club, the National Wildlife Federation and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, has been critical to their success. In letters nominating Tom for the award, NWF noted that many of these groups "traced the inspiration of their members and leaders directly back to Tom."

"Ask Tom what his most important conservation battle was," added Craig Thompson, "and he'll tell you it's the one he's working on now. The man never stops fighting for the natural world."