Renowned conservationist Patrick F. Noonan was honored with the 2009 George Bird Grinnell Memorial Award for Distinguished Service to Natural Resource Conservation. The Wildlife Management Institute (WMI) conferred the award during the 74th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference, held last month in Arlington, Virginia.

The Grinnell Award was established in honor of George Bird Grinnell, a prominent and powerful voice for the nation's earliest conservation movement. Its honorees have demonstrated leadership, tenacity, and integrity in shaping fish and wildlife policy throughout the North American continent. "Pat Noonan has been a giant among conservationists across the nation for more than 35 years," observed Steve Williams, WMI President, when presenting the award.

Noonan served as the President of The Nature Conservancy and was cofounder and chairman of the board of the American Farmland Trust. In 1985, he established The Conservation Fund (TCF). As TCF's chairman, and chairman emeritus, he has guided efforts to conserve more than 3.5 million acres of America's most precious landscape. The organization he founded has enlisted the financial support of more than 250 corporations and 300 foundations to create one of the most powerful land conservation organizations in the world.

Noonan's contributions to conservation include co-authorship (with Henry Diamond) of the influential book, Land Use in America. He has served on three Presidential commissions, is a trustee of the National Geographic Society, and sits on numerous corporate and academic boards.

Pat's lifetime contributions also include pioneering work to create conservation partnerships among federal and state agencies, non-profits, and business and industry. He pioneered the use of tax incentives, real estate deals, zoning regulations and smart growth to conserve the nation's natural resources. He took the leveraging of private-public funding from a concept to an extremely successful technique to achieve fish and wildlife conservation.
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"All of us have been the beneficiaries of Pat Noonan's remarkable legacy of protecting national wildlife refuges, national parks and other of America's special places," said Williams.