SPOTLIGHT ON SYNERGY WINNERS VAN KERREBROOK AND WOODROW
The Citizens’ Environmental Coalition will present its Synergy Awards for Environmental Excellence on Oct 10. The awards recognize cooperative action where the total effect is greater than what each participant would have achieved independently.
The Army and Sarah Emmott Environmental Conservation award, for outstanding work in the field of conservation, will go to Mary Van Kerrebrook, a founder of the Katy Prairie Conservancy and currently president of its board of directors. She is a native Houstonian, with an undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and a law degree from Southern Methodist University. Her law firm, Van Kerrebrook & Associates PC, represents businesses in litigation, arbitration, and other commercial disputes.
The Katy Prairie is home to more than 200 bird species, including many game species; it is also home to alligators, deer, coyotes, and bobcats. Threatened by encroaching development, the odds for the Katy Prairie in the early 1990s looked grim. Much of it had already vanished. Mary saw a possibility of bringing together various Katy Prairie stakeholders conservationists, business people, hunters, farmers and ranchers, local residents, and others to create a land trust to protect a sustainable part of the Katy Prairie. Since its founding in 1993, the Katy Prairie Conservancy has protected more than 17,000 acres of habitat through acquisition, conservation easements, and wetlands mitigation. Mary is also a trustee of the Texas Committee on Natural Resources.
Woody (Jarrett Olen) Woodrow, Jr, one of two recipients of the Government award, is the Coastal Conservation Program Director for the Coastal Fisheries Division of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. He and his staff work on environmental issues affecting fish and wildlife in Texas, including water quality, water quantity, wetlands, habitat restoration, and other habitat issues.
Woody grew up in South Texas and spent considerable time outdoors with his father and his uncle Manuel Ortiz, both outdoor and animal aficionados. After he graduated from the University of Houston with an undergraduate degree in biology, he went to work for a consulting firm. Consulting work allowed Woody to experience a range of environmental issues and studies that included oil spill assessments, groundwater contamination, superfund cleanup, ecological assessments, wetland assessments, and environmental impact studies. In 1993, he went to work for Parks and Wildlife, fulfilling his dream of working for a fish and wildlife agency.
The awards ceremony will be Tuesday, Oct 10, at the downtown Crowne Plaza Hotel. Tickets to the event are $75, and sponsorship and table packages are available. For tickets, please call (713) 524-4232. Donations of unique, environmentally themed items for the silent auction will be appreciated. If you have a product, work of art, excursion, or service you would like to contribute, please contact Alesha Herrera at (713) 269-4881.