AWARDS
The Kerry Rydberg-Jack Tuholske Award for Excellence in Public Interest Environmental Lawyering
The Kerry Rydberg-Jack Tuholske Award is presented each year to a lawyer who exemplifies the best in public interest environmental advocacy. Kerry had just graduated from law school in 1987 and immediately started representing grass-roots groups for little to no pay, challenging practices such as destructive old-growth logging and hunting cougars with radio-collared dogs. Tragically, he died in a car accident just two years later, cutting short what surely would have been a rich legacy protecting the wild things and places we all cherish. Likewise, Jack Tuholske worked tirelessly from his home in Montana to protect the wild lands and their inhabitants that he loved for decades, passing away in 2020, when he was added to this award. The Rydberg-Tuholske award, now in its 34th year (2023), is presented to a person who exemplifies Kerry & Jack’s independent public-interest spirit and work. Each year the award winner is chosen by past recipients and John Bonine, who co-founded the award along with Mike Axline.
The David Bower Award for Lifetime Achievement
The David Brower Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to activists and attorneys who exemplify David Brower’s spirit and accomplishments. The students of Land, Air, Water – the nation’s oldest and largest environmental law society – established the David Brower Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. The honor is presented annually during the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) in Eugene, Oregon.
David Brower was perhaps the most important environmentalist of the second half of the 20th century. He was Executive Director of the Sierra Club and took it from a group of friends hiking on the trails of California to an activist organization making a difference all over the country and beyond. His famous full-page advertisement to oppose the building of a dam near the foot of the Grand Canyon asked, “Should we also flood the Sistine Chapel so that the tourists could get nearer the ceiling?”
David became the “grandfather” of the PIELC for many years, and always said that it was the most important conference anywhere. For this reason Land, Air, Water grants an annual David Brower award to an important activist exemplifying his spirit and accomplishments.
The Svitlana Kravchenko Award for Environmental Rights
The Svitlana Kravchenko Environmental Rights Award is presented to a person who exemplifies the ideals and work of Professor Kravchenko, who left this Earth in 2012, her work enormously successful, but unfinished.
The award winner is chosen from those who carry on in Svitlana’s spirit: having exquisite qualities of both head and heart; mixing academic rigor with spirited activism; and speaking truth to power, while exhibiting kindness toward all. Also in that spirit, the award winner inspires young adults to reach for the stars, while keeping their feet firmly planted in the Earth they want to protect, as Svitlana did. The award goes to a person who makes broad impacts in the law, while working to support local communities. The award winner insists that environmental rights and human rights are indivisible, as did Svitlana Kravchenko, a daughter of Ukraine who became a citizen of America and the entire world.
The award winner is selected by the Co-Directors of Land Air Water after nomination by and consultation with the staff of the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW), and Professor John Bonine, the professional partner and husband of Professor Kravchenko.
