Vim Wright Award Honors Two Locals

Two local residents were recently awarded the Vim Wright ‘Building Bridges’ award at the 2016 annual meeting of the Washington Association of Conservation Districts in Bellingham. This year’s award went to Tristan Klesick, Klesick Farms and Terry Williams, Tulalip Tribes. The prestigious award is given to a person or people who have worked within the arena of conservation to foster understanding, partnerships, and conservation through collaboration and is given in honor of Vim Wright, long-time member of the Washington Conservation Commission. Ms. Wright worked tirelessly to bring traditional agriculture and environmental representatives together to work on conservation projects and develop a strong mutual understanding.

Klesick and Williams both serve on the Sustainable Lands Strategy (SLS) initiative and have worked to bring diverse entities together to protect natural resources including soil, salmon, forestland and farmland.  The SLS is a non-regulatory group of farmers, tribal and environmental members who were convened by Snohomish County to promote collaboration and build relationships. There are four farmers and four environmental members (two Tribal, two restoration) who serve with the group. Accepting the award for Terry Williams was Daryl Williams.  To learn more about Ms. Wright, visit http://www.historylink.org/File/9788.

View fullsize

Mark Craven, left, WACD President, and Bob Schroeter, far right, WACD Executive Director, present Terry Williams (accepted by Daryl Williams, second from left) and Tristan Klesick with the 2016 Vim Wright Building Bridges award in Bellingham.  

Photo credit: Candra Grimm, Legislative and Membership Assistant, Washington Association of Conservation Districts