The Merwin Conservancy is excited to share this wonderful news…
W. S. Merwin has been named the recipient of the 2015 Champion of the Land Conservation Award by Hawaiian Islands Land Trust. This is a prestigious award given annually by the land trust to recognize someone who has made a great impact on conservation in the state of Hawaii. The Merwin Conservancy is proud join the land trust and the entire Hawaii conservation community in congratulating W. S. Merwin for this well deserved honor. The Merwin Family placed a permanent conservation easement on their property on October 10, 2014 to save and protect forever the world renowned Merwin palm tree collection and save this very special place for future generations. Congratulations William!
The Hawaiian Islands Land Trust issued the following press release:
HILT is pleased to announce that it has selected famed poet and conservationist William Stanley Merwin to receive the organization’s 2015 Champion of the Land Conservation Award. The Award will be presented to Mr. Merwin in person at HILT’s 14th Annual Mālama Kīpuka: Buy Back the Beach Benefit Lūʻau on Saturday, January 24, 2015 at Old Lāhainā Lūʻau. Reserve your seat today and call 808-244-5263 or buy tickets online at www.hilt.org/bbtb. This benefit lūʻau raises critical funds for HILT’s time-sensitive land conservation mission.
HILT presents the Champion of the Land Conservation Award annually to an individual or entity who has done great things for land conservation in Hawaiʻi and for the mission of the Hawaiian Islands Land Trust.
Appointed United States Poet Laureate by the Library of Congress in 2010, William Stanley Merwin has a career that has spanned seven decades. A poet, translator, gardener and environmental activist, Merwin has become one of the most widely read and honored poets in America. He has won the Pulitzer Prize twice and received numerous other awards during his prolific and important career. W.S. Merwin is also considered by many in the conservation field to be one of the greatest living environmental poets of our time. He and his wife, Paula, formed The Merwin Conservancy, a Maui-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, to advance and preserve the poet’s literary legacy, world famous palm collection and home in Ha‘ikū. In October 2014, William and Paula donated a perpetual Conservation Easement to the Hawaiian Islands Land Trust on their nearly 20-acre renowned palm forest collection in Ha‘ikū.