Wildlife biologist, educator, policy maker and administrator, Alan Wentz is the recipient of the Wildlife Management Institute's 2011 George Bird Grinnell Award for Distinguished Service to Natural Resource Conservation. The honor was conferred during the 76^th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference last month in Kansas City, Missouri.

Wentz, recently retired as Chief Operations Officer for Ducks Unlimited, Inc., has had a 40-year career of dedicated and progressively influential leadership in the professional conservation community.

Presenting the award, Steve Williams, WMI President, observed:? "George Bird Grinnell?the acknowledged "Father of American Conservation"?was remarkably diverse in lending his time, foresight and talents to the causes of wildlife protection and management, habitat restoration, wildlands preservation and clean water. He was the consummate sportsman and conservation mentor to Theodore Roosevelt. Through his writings, his Forest and Stream magazine, through his political activism and, by dint of his low-key, persuasive personality, Grinnell helped ensure that conservation emerged as part of the national agenda.

"The same diverse investments in natural resource management, the same dedication to the principles and practices of conservation, and the same qualities of character distinguish the 2011 recipient of the George Bird Grinnell Memorial Award. Our profession has a great many individuals owed recognition for stellar contributions to natural resource management in North America. At the very top of the list this year is Alan Wentz."