WLCI Coordinator Receives National Award [AUDIO]

The Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative coordinator is honored in Washington D.C. having her name permanently inscribed into the Bureau of Land Management's Hall of Fame.

The Public Lands Foundation has made their pick for two-thousand and ten's outstanding public lands professional in a technical field.

At a special ceremony held at the Bureau of Land Management in Washington D.C., Renee Dana was recognized for her outstanding professional performance in addressing issues and actions involving varied Greater Sage-grouse habitats in southwest Wyoming.

"It's quite an honor, I really am humbled by that, and, I'm also thrilled."

Dana is the coordinator for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative, or WLCI. WLCI was created in two-thousand and seven in order to address the need for a landscape-scale approach to ensure healthy wildlife populations in areas with proposed energy development.

"Communication sharing is one of our big challenges and one of our main aims is to be able to provide a forum for folks to share things that are going on for habitat conservation in the area. So it's a big challenge to reach the right people and talk to them, it's a challenge to pull together on numerous projects and the funding and partnerships in relation to that. And, just to share information and data across a number of planes and efforts and get all the data we need. So, we're never not busy."

This is the twenty-second year that the Public Lands Foundation has presented this award and according to the Foundation's president, Henri Bisson (bih-sahn), "Ms. Dana inspires other entities to work towards common goals and due to her leadership, WLCI has become the model for landscape level partnerships to be used elsewhere."

Dana had her name inscribed on the "Hall of Fame Award" plaque at the BLM's headquarters in Washington D.C. and recognized the efforts of others in her Cheyenne office.

"...and those folks are really a great deal responsible for me receiving this award, I wouldn't have received it without their support and input as well."