RANGELEY – U.S. Senator Angus King attended the Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust Annual Meeting yesterday; the meeting honored the first ever Senator Angus King Award for Conservation Excellence.
First executive director of RLHT, Nancy Perlson, received the award, recognized for her commitment to the organization.
“For almost thirty years, the Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust has brought area communities together through the values of preserving, protecting and enjoying the lands around them,” Senator King said. “In my years of work, I haven’t come across many individuals who have the commitment to stewardship that Nancy does – her passion and commitment to the outdoors is inspiring. Nancy is well aware that conservation work is never quite done and there’s always more to do to preserve and protect the qualities that make this area so special. I’m thrilled to present her with this award – I couldn’t imagine a more qualified conservationist to be the inaugural recipient.”
While there, Senator King also presented the annual RLHT Community Service Award to Chief Russell French, the Rangeley Chief of Police. After the award presentations, Senator King spoke about the importance of conservation, biodiversity and outdoor recreation in Western Mountains of Maine.
“The Senator Angus King Award for Conservation Excellence is to publicly acknowledge environmental champions, such as Senator King, who work to conserve public lands for future generations,” Executive Director of Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust David Miller said. “It is specifically intended to honor those heroic and unheralded citizens who work, often outside the public spotlight, to care for our lands and waters. Individuals who may qualify for the award have shown outstanding environmental stewardship, gathered people together for a common cause of protecting the environment, and established a track record in conservation leadership.”
The Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust partners with nonprofit organizations, residents, community groups and state and local governments to preserve and protect land within the Rangeley Lakes Region, beginning operations in 1991. They continuously work to expand outdoor recreational opportunities by building trails and creating year-round activities for community members.
As the Ranking Member of the Senate Subcommittee on National Parks, Senator King is known within Congress as a champion of efforts to preserve, protect, and promote America’s national parks and public lands. He is a lead sponsor of the Restore Our Parks Act, bipartisan legislation which would address the nearly $12 billion maintenance backlog without affecting the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Senator King has long advocated in favor of permanent reauthorization of the LWCF, which was signed into law as part of the public lands package in early March.
Giving awards is about all Angus King is able to do.
That and pushing Broadband to vacation rentals.
Get back to the Beltway Mr. King and do something
positive for the people of Maine that matters. You are a great Democrat.
Preserve and protect? Anyone creating rubble of our forests killing our wildlife and harming humans for greed
With promotion of industrial wind turbines in Maine is far from a conservationist
Angus, the only thing you have ever done successfully is get very wealthy pushing this renewable green energy crap. We are stuck looking at your dumb windmills that completely ruin our mountain top scenery. Thanks for being a worthless Senator.
Angus King is Useless.
Was that for real… … The Senator King Award for Conservation Excellence? That guy came to Maine and got rich, very rich….. and now lives mostly back in the home he came from… with a big bag of money….. Responsible for blowing off the tops of beautiful mountains tops in the State of Maine… I say there is something wrong with that all… The people in the area are upset, ranting and raving about CMP wanting to run a power line through the woods…. This man King destroys forests and mountains tops forever and gets an award… The only thing’ dumber is the ones that dreamed up this awards…… ‘The first ever’…. Let us hope it is the last… Give him his trophy and send him down the pike……
I think Senator King is doing an excellent job for those he represents as well as the country.
Crickets from the libs that put him in office. More proof how useless the man is, as if we need it.
The Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust is a great choice. I have benefited from their trails and from the land for camping through the Phillips Memorial Preserve. Their efforts to keep Maine accessible to the locals and visitors makes Maine special. It is easy to take the beauty of Maine but without people to protect it and our access to it we wouldn’t have it to enjoy.
Thank you, RLHT and Nancy Perlson for all your hard work. By building relationships locally and state wide, the Rangeley area will continue to be a beautiful and publicly accessible place for years to come. And, thanks Sen. King for recognizing that!
This cricket is happy with what he has done as a senator, and will vote for him again (by the way, I am currently a republican cricket, who will soon go to independent, since Senator Obstructionist McConnell continues to not lead the way, and most of the Trumpets administration is locked in conspiracy theories, or actively destroying the environment, families, etc)