BLM Volunteer Awards

The Bureau of Land Management

NEWS

April 15, 1997
Contacts: Leslie Schwager (202) 452-7733 or Jeff Krauss (202) 452-5125

BLM Presents "Making A Difference" Awards to Volunteers
for Their Work on Behalf of Public Lands

The Bureau of Land Management today presented its annual "Making a Difference" Awards to nine individuals and organizations for their contributions as volunteers in helping the BLM enhance and preserve America's public lands. Interior Deputy Secretary John Garamendi, Assistant Secretary Bob Armstrong, and BLM Interim Director Sylvia Baca presented the awards during a ceremony at the Charles Sumner Museum in Washington, D.C. The award recipients were honored for such contributions as protecting a national landmark, interpreting historic sites, conducting environmental education programs, ensuring that adopted wild horses go to good homes, and patrolling Wilderness Areas and campgrounds.

"The work done by volunteers not only enhances the opportunities Americans have to enjoy our public lands, but also ensures that our agency can preserve these lands as an invaluable, irreplaceable legacy for all future generations," Baca said.

Each year, more than 19,000 volunteers donate more than 1.2 million hours of their time -- at an estimated value of over $13 million -- to the BLM. Volunteers of all ages and backgrounds share their time and talents to assist the BLM in restoring riparian areas, patrolling remote areas of historic and cultural significance, building trails, staffing visitors centers, and conducting educational programs.

The 1997 recipients of the BLM's "Making a Difference" national awards are: Marty Felix (Grand Junction, Colorado), Theodore "Ted" Krein (Albuquerque, New Mexico), Kathryn Mear (Lakeview, Oregon), Norman and Tim Spitz (Kanab, Utah), Illa Wilmore (Roy, Montana), Pompeys Pillar Interpretive Association (Billings, Montana), Red Rock Canyon Interpretive Association (Las Vegas, Nevada), and Trail Tenders (Baker City, Oregon).

Marty Felix, affectionately known to local school children as the "wild horse lady," has spent an average of 300 hours a year over the past 20 years with the Wild Horse Program in the Grand Junction Resource Area in Colorado. Felix assesses the condition of the pastures and horses, develops a horse index of the 80- to 100-head herd, and makes educational and public presentations about the Wild Horse Program. Felix has published articles about wild horses and has taken thousands of pictures of the Little Bookcliffs wild horse herds.

Theodore "Ted" Krein is the BLM's very own "Jack-of-all-Trades." He has put his engineering skills to use during his five years as a volunteer at the BLM's Rio Puerco Resource Area in New Mexico. Krein, 71, has repaired fences, built gates, driven cattle from pastures, and regularly patrolled Rio Puerco's Wilderness Study Areas. Krein has developed a method for distinguishing the complicated boundaries of these study areas. One summer, he and his grandson put up signs with the Wilderness Study Area abbreviation (WSA) with milepostings along the perimeters of the WSAs. This demarcation has proven invaluable for radio check-ins and general safety. Krein's innovations and hard work have made a substantial difference to the Rio Puerco Resource Area, its programs, and its visitors.

Kathryn Mear, a Texas elementary school teacher, has traveled to Lakeview, Oregon, for the past 11 years as a BLM volunteer. She has contributed more than 3,600 hours of work in recording archaeological sites within the BLM's Lakeview Resource Area. She has assisted in countless field inventories, site evaluations, and site-test excavations. Mear has also applied her teaching background by helping develop and review educational material and programs, and by exposing her students to the concepts of cultural resources and resource management.

Norman and Tim Spitz, a father-and-son team, entered into a long-term volunteer partnership with the Kanab Resource Area in Utah in 1995. Over the past two years, the team has volunteered more than 7,000 hours, providing an on-the-ground presence and intermittent staffing for the Paria Contact Station; assisting with Wilderness Area and Wilderness Study Area patrols; and conducting weekly maintenance of trailheads, campsites, and the contact station. The Spitzes have built a three-panel kiosk that serves a Utah State Park and have developed a sign-tracking system for the Kanab Resource Area. Over the course of their volunteer service, the Spitzes have saved the BLM more than $70,000 in labor and contractual costs.

Illa Willmore has been a BLM volunteer for the past four years, serving as a campground host at the James Kipp Recreation Area on the Upper Missouri National Wild and Scenic River in Montana. Willmore, a long-time resident of this rural area, has donated more than 4,000 hours as a host and in raising public awareness of the rich ecosystem of the Missouri River Breaks.

The members of the Pompeys Pillar Interpretive Association have worked long and hard to preserve Pompeys Pillar as a national historic landmark, which is the only existing evidence of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The association, which was instrumental in generating local, State and Federal support for protecting the landmark when it was under private ownership, helped the BLM acquire the site and construct a BLM Visitors Center there. The association provides more than 1,000 hours of volunteer support each year through staffing of the Visitors Center, presenting interpretive talks and environmental education programs, and through the operation of a souvenir stand.

The Red Rock Canyon Interpretive Association played a key role in bringing Nevada's Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area into the local and national spotlight. The
association's members have donated more than 10,000 hours of volunteer time by staffing the information desk, producing displays and signs, presenting programs, and providing financial support for brochures and special environmental education materials. In 1994, the association
received the "Excellence in Interpretive Support" award from the National Association for Interpretation. In 1996, the association teamed up with a local education committee to create and implement an in-service program of 13 workshops that benefited more than 200 local elementary school teachers.

For the past four and a half years, the dedicated members of Trail Tenders have provided invaluable assistance to the BLM in carrying out the daily operations of the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center in Baker City, Oregon. In 1996, more than 168 Trail Tenders volunteers donated 11,925 hours of time in greeting visitors, staffing the information desk, and maintaining the facility. Also last year, which marked the BLM's 50th anniversary, Trail Tenders developed a special commemorative 50th anniversary envelope, planned a Pioneer Heritage Festival, and helped fund a 50th anniversary exhibit. The group has also been extensively involved in public outreach on behalf of the interpretive center.

This page was created by the
U.S. Bureau of Land Management,
Office of Public Affairs
1849 C Street, Room 406-LS
Washington, DC 20240
Phone: (202) 452-5125
Fax: (202) 452-5124

Please contact us with
any questions relating to accessibility of documents.

Download Adobe Acrobat Reader

This is a U.S. Government Computer System. Before continuing, please read this disclaimer and privacy statement. Accessibility