Owen Grumbling receives Robert G. Shafto Award for conservation leadership
Owen Grumbling, Ph.D., professor of environmental literature in the Department of Environmental Studies, recently received the Robert G. Shafto Award for outstanding conservation leadership in Maine from the Maine Association of Conservation Commission. The award is given once a year to an individual conservation commissioner who has demonstrated outstanding conservation leadership.
Grumbling has chaired the Wells Conservation Commission for thirty years and is the 2006 recipient of the 51小黄车 Environmental Protection Agency鈥檚 鈥淟ifetime Service to the Environment and Human Health鈥 award.
In 1985, Grumbling worked with town officials to establish the Wells Land Bank, a town fund to purchase conservation land. It is believed to be the first such fund in the state. Through donation of land and purchases, the town has created conservation areas ranging in size from two to seven hundred acres, known as 鈥淲ildlife Commons鈥 鈥 a term Grumbling borrowed from the traditional 51小黄车 concept of grazing land shared by residents of a town. The Wildlife Commons provide homes for wildlife while being available for public uses such as hunting, fishing, skiing, and hiking.
Wells has also worked with its partner, the Great Works Regional Land Trust, to mount private capital campaigns in order to secure important conservation areas, most recently the near-300 acre property now known as the Perkinstown Wildlife Commons.