Congratulations to John Hartig, Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge manager, for recently being named the John Muir Association's Conservationist of the Year at a ceremony near San Francisco.
Hartig, who also serves on the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy board of directors, has authored or co-authored more than 100 publications on the environment, including four books.
One of them, Burning Rivers: Revival of Four Urban-Industrial Rivers that Caught on Fire, was reviewed by yours truly for the January 2012 edition of SEJournal, the quarterly magazine of the Society of Environmental Journalists (I've been with SEJ since 1993 and have been SEJournal's volunteer book editor since 2011).
John Hartig, manager of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge, is the John Muir Association's Conservationist of the Year. Photo credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
I've known John through most of the 23 years I've been with The (Toledo) Blade and can attest to his honesty, integrity, and deep commitment to the outdoors.
He has a wealth of information about how the Great Lakes region, especially western Lake Erie, emerged from a soupy mixture of industrial chemicals in the 1960s and early 1970s to become the world-class fishery it is today while also grappling with a new round of chronic and potentially devastating toxic algae blooms since 1995.
The Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge he manages is a one-of-a-kind marriage between two countries - the United States and Canada - over a shared resource for wildlife.
The John Muir Foundation is based in Martinez, Calif.
It honors the legacy of one of the nation's greatest conservationists, John Muir, who founded the Sierra Club.
Organized as the John Muir Memorial Association in 1956, its name was shortened in 2004.
It works with the National Park Service to preserve Muir's former 10,000-square-foot home and surrounding orchards in Martinez. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed legislation making the site a National Historic Site on Sept. 3, 1964.
John Hartig in a northern Monroe County section of the Detroit International Wildlife Refuge in 2014. BLADE PHOTO/TOM HENRY
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