The Bureau of Land Management NEWS |
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The Bureau of Land Management NEWS |
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Last updated: 04/04/03
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Bureau of Land Management For Release: Friday, December 6, 2002 |
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BLM Interpreters and Educators Honored At National Workshop The Bureau of Land Management has announced that Jim Jennings, a recreation planner from the BLM's Bishop, California, Field Office, is the winner of the agency's 2002 "Excellence in Interpretation or Environmental Education" award for his work in developing an innovative guide to remote roads in California's Eastern Sierra region. Wade Johnson, a resource interpreter/wilderness coordinator at BLM's Grand Junction, Colorado, Field Office., won an honorable mention award for his work on interpretive trails designed for the sight-impaired. BLM recognized Jennings and other outstanding BLM interpreters and environmental educators at a November 14 presentation during the National Association for Interpretation's (NAI) annual National Interpreters Workshop in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The BLM "Excellence" Awards recognize outstanding BLM interpreters and educators for their work on employee-conducted programs that enhance public appreciation and understanding of the natural treasures on our public lands. BLM "Excellence" nominees were judged on the quality of their work, their ability to involve partners, their effectiveness in enhancing public understanding of cultural and natural resources, their programs' or products' accessibility and sensitivity to diverse audiences, and their efforts' success in helping BLM to accomplish its management goals. This year's winner and honorable mention awardee each received a framed certificate of recognition and will also receive monetary awards. According to BLM Deputy Director Jim Hughes, who presented the award, the production of Motor Touring in the Eastern Sierra was the result of a large cooperative project involving federal, state, and local governments as well as civic and volunteer groups. "Jim Jennings not only helped with much of the research for the guide, he also helped forge a partnership of many agency and citizen groups to support and promote the guide," Hughes said. "Once the guide was published, Jim created a marketing plan and helped distribute it throughout the region." The 18 routes in the guide are almost entirely on public land. Jennings and his team chose routes that visitors can use without damaging the lands. The guide also weaves in an effective message of environmentally responsible ethics and recreation. More than 70,000 copies of the guides have been printed, and it has become extremely popular among motor tourists in the Eastern Sierra region of California and Nevada. Honorable Mention award winner Wade Johnson was nominated for establishing and maintaining interpretive programs and exhibits for the Colorado Canyons National Conservation Area, and working closely with local partners and diverse groups. Among his accomplishments are an interpretive trail for the sight-impaired and another trail in the sensitive Fruita Paleontological Area. Johnson helped create BLM's first interpretive trail designed for the sight-impaired. He worked closely with the local chapter of the National Federation for the Blind to design a trail at Dinosaur Hill with special interpretive signs that can be read and understood by sight impaired individuals. BLM's "Excellence in Interpretation or Environmental Education" Awards were presented in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service's "Gifford Pinchot Award," the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's "Sense of Wonder Award," the National Park Service's "Freeman Tilden Award," the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' "Hiram M. Chittenden Award," and NAI's "Master Front-Line Interpreter" and "Master Interpretive Manager" Awards. Eastern National, a private educational organization that offers financial support to the National Park Service, hosted receptions for the winners before and after the ceremony. Also presented at the National Interpreters Workshop were NAI's 2002 Interpretive Media Awards, which recognize outstanding educational and interpretive products created during 2001. BLM had winning entries in three categories: Poster, Site Publication, and Interpretive Program Curriculum. The "Wyoming Archaeology Awareness Month" poster developed by the BLM Wyoming State Office was selected as an award winner by the NAI's panel of judges. The poster features a dramatic photograph of cultural resources in Wyoming. The "Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument Visitor Information" brochure, produced by the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Mounment Visitor Services group, won an award in the Site Publication category. The publication includes a detailed map of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah. In the Interpretive Program Curriculum category, the "Escalante Pueblo Curriculum" was an award recipient. This school curriculum was produced by BLM's Anasazi Heritage Center in Dolores, Colorado. The National Association for Interpretation (http://www.interpnet.org) is a professional organization focusing on the interpretation of natural and cultural history. About 40 percent of its 3,500 members are Federal employees. The Bureau of Land Management (http://www.blm.gov), an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior, manages 262 million acres of public lands, located mostly in the western United States and Alaska. BLM was a "Gold Circle" sponsor of this year's National Interpreters Workshop.
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