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Three Students Receive Ralph W. Abele Conservation Scholarships

The Ralph W. Abele Scholarship Fund this week announced it has awarded three students a total of $4,000 in scholarships to support their work in conservation and environmental studies programs.

The scholarship winners were: Darren M. Wood, Millerstown (Perry County) - $2,000; David P. Heath, Carlisle (Cumberland County) - $1,000; and Cory Burns, Warren (Warren County) - $1,000.

“We are very pleased to award these scholarships to three very deserving students pursing careers in conservation,” said Frank Felbaum, President of the Ralph W. Abele Scholarship Fund board. “The mission of the board is to promote the development of Pennsylvania’s next generation of environmental leaders and providing scholarships is a great way to encourage young people to consider conservation as a field of study.”

Here is more background on each of the winners:

· Darren M. Wood is a graduate of Greenwood High School, Perry County, and will attend Mansfield University as a Biology-Fisheries Major. He served as a state vice-president in the Pennsylvanian Future Farmers of America and has had internships with the Department of Agriculture and the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau.

· David P. Health is a graduate of Carlisle High School, Cumberland County, and will attend Pennsylvania State University as a Civil and Environmental Systems Engineering Major. He is a graduate of the American Wilderness Leadership School in Wyoming and worked to develop an ornithology trail in a conservation area as an Eagle Scout project.

· Cory Burns, Warren, Pa, will be returning to Westminster College as a senior majoring in Biology. As a senior research project, Cory chose to study the impact the hemlock woolly adelgid is having on stream and forest ecology, in particular riparian ecology.

The Abele Scholarship Fund was formed in 1991 as a living memorial to Ralph W. Abele who provided extraordinary leadership to the Fish and Boat Commission and to Pennsylvania’s conservation movement from 1969 through 1987.

“Ralph Abele was a tremendous advocate for protecting and restoring Pennsylvania’s streams and rivers and worked tirelessly to pass state and federal clean water laws and the environmental rights amendment to the state constitution,” said Felbaum. “Ralph has been missed, but we have the next generation of environmentalists waiting in the wings to do their part.”

Abele scholarships are awarded annually and considered for students giving a priority to seniors or graduates of the Greenwood Area School District in Perry County, second preference to residents of Perry County and children of employees of the Fish and Boat Commission and then other residents of Pennsylvania.

For more information, write the Ralph W. Abele Scholarship Fund, c/o Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission, P.O. Box 67000, Harrisburg, PA 17106-7000, send email to Joe Greene, Treasurer, at: jgreene@paonline.com or visit the Commission’s website at www.fish.state.pa.us and do a search for “scholarship.”

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