New Award Memorializes Land Conservation Leader
U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Greenville, SCFor IMMEDIATE RELEASE (June 23, 2014)
Nancy Natoli’s job at the Department of Defense’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Program (REPI) was to support “…military sustainability by addressing and removing restrictions to allow commanders the greatest flexibility to ensure our military men and women can test, train, and operate now and into the future.” She did that with a passion and commitment that benefited not only America’swarfighters, but also those who work daily to protect our Nation’s conservation lands and natural resources. The Nancy Natoli Élan Award for Innovation in Land Conservation celebrates Nancy’s spirit,achievements, and impact on the land conservation community.
“This annual award recognizes individuals, teams, or organizations, which, in Nancy’s spirit, have taken existing, undersized land conservation opportunities and tweaked them for unexpected or outsized results, or identified and implemented new land conservation opportunities,” said Peter Stangel, Senior Vice President at the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment), one of several ofNancy’s colleagues who helped develop the award.
Nominations will be considered for on-going or completed work, or for cumulative accomplishments over time for people, teams, or organizations that have:
- Improved the land protection movement through conservation or natural resource protection;
- Leveraged resources through innovative finance to implement projects with limited funding;
- Taken projects with limited utility and found connections that make them more useful, efficient,or beneficial to multiple stakeholders;
- Embodied Nancy Natoli’s fundamental approach to land conservation:
o Intellectual curiosity and integrity;
o Drive to leverage multiple efficiencies to “protect the most land at the least cost;”
o Passion for innovation in land conservation and conservation finance; and
o Acknowledgement of the benefit of collaboration across varying agencies, governments,
organizations and groups to identify and attain common goals
Additional consideration will be given for:
- Direct or indirect benefits to the Department of Defense’s Readiness and EnvironmentalProtection Integration (REPI) Program or the individual training, testing or operational mission at
any DOD installation.
- Direct or indirect benefits or multiplies efforts of any federal land protection program.
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The Nancy Natoli Élan Award for Innovation in Land Conservation criteria and nomination form may be found here. Nominations for the inaugural 2014 award are due by Friday, July 25. The award winner will receive a framed, United States flag that was flown over the Pentagon, and an accompanying statement of recognition. The 2014 award will be presented at the Compatible Lands Foundation’s annual Friends ofREPI reception, to be held in conjunction with the Land Trust Alliance Rally in Providence, Rhode Island, in September.
The concept and criteria for the Nancy Natoli Élan Award for Innovation in Land Conservation were developed by her friends at: Compatible Lands Foundation; Conservation Pathways, LLC; the Endowment; Island Press; Lyme Timber Company; Open Space Institute; REPI; Texas A&M Institute of Renewable Natural Resources; TravelStorysGPS, LLC, and; Yale University Center for Business & the Environment.
For more information contact:
Peter Stangel, Senior Vice President, 404-915-2763; peter@runslikeclock.work
The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) is a not-for-profit public charity working collaboratively with partners in the public and private sectors to advance systemic,transformative, and sustainable change for the health and vitality of the nation’s working forests andforest-reliant communities – www.usendowment.org.
