Learn how businesses and doing their part to protect the Chesapeake Bay and from this year's winners of awards from the Pennsylvania Resources Council-

Business Leaders Recognized for Chesapeake Bay Protection Efforts

Pennsylvania Resources Council Announces 2004 Winner of Fox Calhoun Award

The Pennsylvania Resources Council, Inc. (PRC) has selected Larry Schweiger, President and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), to receive the prestigious Fox Calhoun Award named after two of PRC’s founders – Hilda Fox and Cynthia Calhoun.

Also being recognized as leaders in promoting sustainable practices are Patricia Vathis, Environment and Ecology Education Advisor in the Department of Education (Leader in Sustainable Education), the Engineering and Design Institute of Philadelphia University (Leader in Sustainable Building) and the nonprofit Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful organization (Leader in Sustainable Partnerships).

The awards are being presented at PRC’s annual awards dinner on November 9 in Philadelphia.

Schweiger is being recognized for his exemplary career in environmental conservation that spans over three decades. During that time, he served as the Executive Director of Pennsylvania General Assembly’s Joint Conservation Committee, worked with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and was Vice President of the NWF.

His environmental career is also being recognized for his leadership and achievements while serving as President and CEO of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy from 1996 until April of this year when he accepted his current position with the NWF.

Under Schweiger’s leadership, the Conservancy enhanced its community garden projects designed to revitalize urban spaces; renovated Fallingwater, the masterpiece home built by Frank Lloyd Wright in Mill Run, Fayette County; and preserved over 200,000 acres of land including the 11,000-acre H.J. Crawford Reserve in Venango County (the Commonwealth's largest private land conservation reserve), 3,500 acres of riverbank along the Clarion River, and, 4,448 acres of Tamarack Swamp in Clinton County.

His most recent achievement was preserving the 540-acre property known as the “Erie Bluffs” and turning it over to the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to manage as a state park. In addition to one mile of shoreline with scenic views from 90-foot bluffs, the property also contains mature old growth forest; rare, endangered and threatened floral communities; a rare oak savannah sand barren ecosystem; wetlands; and archaeological sites spanning the entire cultural sequence known for the Commonwealth’s Lake Erie shore.

Efforts to protect the property had been underway since 1998, when residents of the region came together to encourage protection because of the site’s unique values. Schweiger has also been influential in influencing public policy on environmental issues throughout his career.

An active leader in his home town community, McCandless, Allegheny County , Schweiger has served on more than 40 boards, commissions and committees. He received the Distinguished Service Award for Special Conservation Achievement from the National Wildlife Federation in 1995. He was one of the Pittsburghers of the Year for 1998 and was selected as Pennsylvania's Environmental Professional of the Year in 2002.

The Fox Calhoun Award is presented to individuals who have demonstrated uncommon leadership and have made an exceptional contribution toward the conservation of natural resources and environmental protection in the Commonwealth. The award has been presented just sixteen times during PRC’s 65-year history.

Previous recipients include Jim Seif and Art Davis, former Secretaries of the PA Department of Environmental Protection, Joanne Denworth, former Executive Director of 10,000 Friends of PA, and Senator Ted Erickson while serving as EPA Region III Administrator.

For more information about PRC and the awards dinner please visit the Pennsylvania Resources Council webpage. or call 610-353-1555 ext. 228.

10/15/2004