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Valparaiso University Scho0l of Law alumnus nominated for conservation award
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
A Valparaiso University School of Law alumnus, Lowell E. Baier, is one of four finalists for a national conservation award in recognition of his work to protect President Theodore Roosevelt’s Elkhorn Ranch.
Baier, who earned his bachelor’s degree from Valparaiso in 1961 and law degree in 1964, is a nominee for Budweiser’s Conservationist of the Year Award, which includes a $50,000 prize to support a conservation project selected by the winner. The public may vote through Nov. 30 for the winner of the award online.
Over the past two years, Baier led efforts to purchase the largest remaining portion of Roosevelt’s Elkhorn Ranch, an ecologically and historically significant habitat located adjacent to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. Purchase of the 23,550-acre habitat was completed in April, effectively increasing the size of the national park by 33 percent.
Baier said restoring the habitat of Elkhorn Ranch, the place where Roosevelt’s conservation consciousness crystallized and spurred his eventual establishment of America’s national park system, will help protect a birthplace of conservation in America. The U.S. Forest Service, in cooperation with the National Park Service, now manages the Elkhorn Ranch for the benefit and enjoyment of the American people.
Baier said the $50,000 prize would complete the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s $500,000 acquisition challenge grant and clear the way for additional funding of a habitat renewal fund to help restore native grasses and plants, provide grass banking for neighboring ranches in time of drought or grass fires, allow for environmental mitigation, and establish educational and interpretive programs.
Baier has been active in wildlife conservation for nearly 40 years. In the early 1970s, he helped found the Washington, D.C., chapter of Safari Club International. Baier also took the lead role in drafting a wildlife conservation agenda for President George H.W. Bush’s administration and played a major role in creating the National Conservation Leadership Institute in 2004 to assist mid-level state and federal wildlife managers in assuming leadership roles.
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