The National Wildlife Federation will honor Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour Coordinator Kathy Kramer in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 1 at its annual National Achievement Awards and Dinner.  Among the dozen other recipients receiving awards that evening are Al Gore and Arnold Schwarzenegger.  This annual celebration recognizes individuals and organizations that, through personal commitment & determination, make outstanding contributions to conservation. Whether through education, advocacy or organizational leadership, each of the Connie Award Winners inspires others to unite in the common cause of conservation.

Past awardees include Jimmy Carter, Lady Bird Johnson, and former Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall. For more information see www.nwf.org/about/connieawards2007.cfm.

Over the past twenty years Ms. Kramer has developed a number of programs that involve teachers and the public in, and educate them about, local environmental issues.

Most recently, Ms. Kramer developed the free Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour, which draws more than 5,000 registrants each year. This tour features more than 60 Alameda and Contra County gardens that are pesticide-free, water-conserving, provide habitat for wildlife, and contain 50% or more natives.  To be added to the e-mail list for this event visit www.BringingBackTheNatives.net.  We participated with our garden in 2005 and 2006, and we will be on the tour again in 2008.

Prior to starting the garden tour Ms. Kramer founded and was Executive Director of the Aquatic Outreach Institute.  Other programs developed under Ms. Kramer’s oversight include the teacher-training workshops Kids in Creeks, Kids in Marshes, Kids in Gardens, and Watching Our Watersheds.  She has been responsible for developing several successful community-based programs, which resulted in the formation of the Friends of Sausal Creek and the Friends of San Leandro Creek.  Ms. Kramer has overseen a dozen annual Creeks, Wetlands, and Watersheds conferences for educators and the general public, and she has developed and managed both Community Stewardship and Teacher Action Grants programs. The programs developed under Ms. Kramer’s leadership received local, state, and national awards each year for the six years in a row. Ms. Kramer herself received the National Wetlands Award for Education/Outreach in Washington D.C. in 1998.