PORT ANGELES — Attorney Gary Colley, a founder of the North Olympic Land Trust, is the 2009 Cox Conserves Hero for Western Washington.
He will donate his $5,000 award to the land trust, based in Port Angeles.
Colley won through receiving the highest number of votes of the five finalists on the Web site, www.CoxConservesHeroes.com.
The Web site does not say how many votes he received.
The winner is allowed to donate the award to an environmental nonprofit agency. Colley chose the land trust.
Colley was nominated by Greg Good, land trust executive director, and was interviewed by a representative of KIRO-TV, an affiliate of the co-sponsors, Cox Communications and Trust for Public Lands.
Recent projects included protecting 38 acres of agricultural land Dungeness Valley Creamery owns through a collaborative project involving Friends of the Fields, Clallam County and the Farmland Preservation Program of the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program.
Colley also is leading the land trust’s effort to achieve accreditation by the national Land Trust Alliance by making sure the local organization complies with those standards before an application is submitted early next year.
Colley is also a longtime member of the Clallam County parks board.
Colley’s donated legal work has been a key element in protecting more than 1,500 acres of land from development since he and other Peninsula citizens established North Olympic Land Trust in 1990, said a prepared statement from KIRO-TV.
“I’m committed to this area because I live here,” Colley said. “After 30 years, it’s still nice to drive through the area and see the picturesque open spaces.”
Colley was named the winner Wednesday at a dinner hosted for the finalists by One Eighty, a sponsor of the Cox Conserves Heroes program.
Other finalists and their chosen organizations were Harry Case, Whidbey Camano Land Trust; Scott Hansen, Puget Creek Restoration Society, based in Tacoma; Cass Turnbull, Plant Amnesty of Seattle; and Charlotte Valbert, Greater Metro Parks Foundation of Tacoma.
Colley was the only nominee from the North Olympic Peninsula in the Seattle market.
The finalists were chosen by a panel of civic leaders within Seattle’s conservation field, the Cox Conserves Heroes Web site says.
For more information, see www.CoxConservesHeroes.com.
For more information about the land trust, see www.nolt.org or phone 360-417-1815.
