The Northeast Pennsylvania Environmental Partners this week recognized local groups and individuals for their environmental achievements at their annual awards dinner.

The Partners include: Wilkes University, Pennsylvania Environmental Council’s NE Office, Northeast Pennsylvania Alliance, Procter & Gamble Paper Products Company, PPL Corporation and the departments of Environmental Protection and Conservation and Natural Resources.

The winners of the Environmental Partnership Awards included:

· Alan Gregory, Luzerne County for his promotion through writing, of conservation and environmental issues and partnering with Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, Hawk Migration Association of North American, North Branch Bird Club, Greater Wyoming Audubon Society, Nature Conservancy and the North Branch Land Trust.

· Bradford/Sullivan Forest Landowner’s Association, Bradford & Sullivan Counties, for its partnership efforts to educate forest landowners to manage their forest land for its highest economic, silvicultural, recreational and aesthetic uses; to encourage and to help woodlot owners find solutions to their individual problems; and to be recognized as an organized voice of forest landowners.

· Earth Conservancy’s Leaf & Yard Waste Composting Facility, Luzerne County, for their five acre Leaf and Yard Waste Composting Facility located in Newport Township. During the course of the last eleven years, the Compost Facility has produced over 81,000 tons of compost from all types of yard waste, including tree branches, leaf material, grasses and brush.

· Robert Hughes, Luzerne County, for his work in partnering activities related to numerous environmental issues in his home community of Plymouth Township for over 10 years as well as the Northeast Region through his volunteer efforts and as his profession with the Luzerne Conservation District and the Eastern Coalition for Abandon Mine Reclamation.

· Dan Kunkle & the Lehigh Gap Nature Center, Carbon County, for its partnering efforts which reclaimed the contaminated landscape at the Lehigh Gap and enhanced the habitat and created a new wildlife refuge

· Gordon Wildermuth & Tom Zeterberg, Pike County, for their partnership efforts and as strong advocates of green infrastructure planning, resource conservation, smart growth and innovative planning implementation tools have worked to address the tremendous growth pressures facing Pike County and their local municipal officials.

The Thirteenth Annual Thomas P. Shelburne Environmental Leadership Award will be presented this year to: Professor Howard Jennings, Lackawanna County.

Howard Jennings has been an instructor and professor of biology and environmental science at Keystone College since 1968. Professor Jennings is also Coordinator of Environmental Science and Forestry at the College, and sits on the Board of Trustees as a representative of the faculty.

He was instrumental in the establishment and operation of the Pocono Environmental Education Center and spearheaded the development of the extensive system of unpaved trails, located throughout the campus of Keystone College. This trail system promotes the forested “Woodland Campus” located along the banks of the South Branch of the Tunkhannock Creek.

In partnership with local conservation districts and non-profit organizations he coordinated the development of the Tunkhannock Creek Watershed Atlas. He was heavily involved in the creation of the Keystone College Environmental Education Institute, a teacher–training initiative launched in 2004.

Since 1998 Professor Jennings has served as Director of the Countryside Conservancy, a local non-profit organization devoted to land and water conservation. Professor Jennings was also instrumental in the creation of the South Branch of the Tunkhannock Creek Watershed Coalition.

This year’s Keynote address was given by Nancy Cole of the Union of Concerned Scientists. Nancy Cole keeps the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Sound Science Initiative tuned up and running well. Sound Science Initiative is a special project designed to

help scientists present accurate, credible information about global warming and other issues to policymakers and the media.

NewsClip: Northeast Environmental Partners Give Out Environmental Awards

10/19/2007