CSKT wins national conservation award
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PABLO — The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes were honored last week as one of the great conservation leaders in government.
On May 17, in Washington, D.C., the tribes were presented with the National Wildlife Federation’s 2012 Conservation Achievement Award in Government.
“For the last 50 years, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of Montana have been one of the great leaders in fish and wildlife conservation in the West,” said a news release from the National Wildlife Federation. “As a sovereign government, they have used their strong cultural ties to the land and wildlife to guide their decisions for conservation, protecting the Flathead Indian Reservation.”
The award recognizes major conservation accomplishments, which include the first tribally established wilderness area in the United States, the Mission Mountain wilderness area; wildlife crossing corridors on major U.S. highway 93; the re-introduction of trumpeter swans; and establishment of a grizzly bear conservation area in Western Montana. The CSKT also helped stop a proposed dam on the Kootenai River and established minimum instream flows for the Jocko River Basin. CSKT has also joined NWF and other groups on several projects, including the opposition of an industrial transportation corridor supporting tar sands in Northern Alberta.
“The CSKT leadership role in wildlife and natural resource conservation and environmental protection are unparalleled. They go above and beyond what would be considered sufficient and never take the approach that a conservation challenge is unachievable,” according to NWF.
Also honored were musician Jack Johnson (communications), the children’s television network Nickelodeon (corporate leadership), Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and his wife Katie (legislative), the footwear company Timberland (international), Cuban refugee Alicia Celorio (philanthropy) and biomedical researcher Nimansha Jain (science).
