International Paper and The Conservation Fund are now accepting nominations to recognize two conservation/environmental education leaders with a $10,000 cash award.

Award nominations are due April 15.

International Paper partners each year with The Conservation Fund to sponsor the International Paper Conservation Partnership Award and the International Paper Environmental Education Award. The $10,000 awards are unrestricted grants from the International Paper Foundation.

The International Paper Conservation Partnership Award, in its 18th year, is presented annually to an individual who has achieved significant results in the protection of habitat through a cooperative relationship with a business or company.

By demonstrating that a healthy environment and a healthy economy are not mutually exclusive, this person leads in a conservation effort benefiting the environment and encourages others to form similarly productive alliances with businesses.

Nominees must have achieved significant results in the protection of terrestrial or wetland habitats in the United States and demonstrated the positive value of cooperative partnerships between business and the conservation community.

Last year's 2006 Conservation Partnership Award went to Keith Kirkland, executive director of the Wolf River Conservancy, who for more than 20 years, has been a volunteer, employee and leader in the conservancy dedicated to protecting and enhancing the land and waters along Tennessee's Wolf River.

Since his appointment as executive director in 2003, Kirkland has raised $12.5 million to support the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers' Wolf River Restoration Project. By bringing together leading companies, nonprofits, elected officials and state and local governments, he has led the protection of 17,000 acres of forest and wetland within the Wolf River floodplain.

Kirkland's efforts also helped to establish the Ghost River State Natural Area. All told, this protected landscape serves as a recharge area for the region's aquifer, safeguarding drinking water for one of the state's fastest-growing areas and habitat for threatened and endangered species

The International Paper Environmental Education Award, in its 13th year, is presented annually to an educator who has developed an innovative approach to environmental education that significantly improves student comprehension of environmental issues, fosters an understanding of the link between environmental protection and economic growth, demonstrates leadership and inspires achievement.

Potential candidates are elementary or secondary school educators or university faculty or staff members.

Last year's 2006 IP Environmental Education Award went to Laura Patterson, of Los Alamos, New Mexico. Patterson has served as an educator for 17 years across the U.S., and was honored for developing an innovative response to a local catastrophe.

The Cerro Grande Fire that destroyed more than 40,000 acres and displaced nearly 430 families in 2000 moved her to lead students and fellow teachers in the restoration and improvement of the fire-damaged Quemazon Nature Trail.

She wrote an interdisciplinary, field-based forest ecology curriculum combining forestry, biology and geology that was later adopted by other schools in northern New Mexico and recognized nationally. Thus far, more than 1,500 students from 12 regional schools have participated in the program.

The winners will be recognized in an awards ceremony in June

The application forms are available online.

2/23/2007