A prominent UW-Madison professor received the Wilderness Society’s highest honor last Thursday for his environmental protection efforts, joining an elite group of conservation thought leaders.
William Cronon, an environmental historian, earned the Wilderness Society’s Robert Marshall Award, which is given to a private citizen for making outstanding contributions to conservation, according to a university press release.
Wilderness Society President Jamie Williams praised Cronon for his ability to inspire Americans to cherish nature.
“He knows that people can only love what they know - what they feel connected to,” Williams said in the release. “By illuminating our connection to the land with such powerful stories, he has given our society hope that we might come to care for the land - and for each other - in a more profound way than ever before.”
Cronon studies North American environmental history and strives to understand interactions between humans and the natural world. This understanding of connections, according to Williams, is what allows Cronon to motivate Americans to take interest in the environment.
