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News Release
| For Immediate Release |
Wildlife Conservationist Ramona S. Bass to Receive Botanical Research Institute of Texas 2010 International Award of Excellence in Conservation on Thursday, May 20, 2010
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FORT WORTH, Texas -- Wildlife conservationist Ramona Seeligson Bass will receive the 2010 International Award of Excellence in Conservation from the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) on Thursday, May 20, 2010, at a dinner here.
“We are honored to present this award to Mrs. Bass,” said S. H. Sohmer, Ph.D., BRIT’s president and director. “Her accomplishments in wildlife conservation are splendid examples of how one person can make a huge difference on behalf of the conservation of our environment. The impact of her work is invaluable.”
Mrs. Bass has become widely known as the transformational leader of the Fort Worth Zoo. Serving as co-chair of the board of directors of the Fort Worth Zoological Association for the past 19 years, she has led the 100-year-old attraction through privatization to its current standing as one of the top zoos in the country. Ranked the No. 5 zoo in the nation by USA Travel Guide and the No. 1 attraction in the DFW Metroplex by Zagat survey, the Zoo is home to more than 500 animal species and a world-famous reptile collection, housed in the recently opened Museum of Living Art (MOLA). The institution’s focus on education and conservation is second to none, enhancing the lives of more than 1 million visitors a year. The Zoo supports more than 20 conservation projects in more than 30 countries around the globe.
BRIT (www.brit.org) created the International Award of Excellence in Conservation in 1995 to honor individuals and organizations that exemplify the ideals expressed in its mission: to conserve our natural heritage by deepening our knowledge of the plant world and achieving public understanding of the value that plants bring to life. The conservation of biodiversity entails the interrelatedness of plants and wildlife.
Approximately 500 people are expected to attend the award dinner at the Renaissance Worthington Hotel, 200 Main Street, Fort Worth. A reception at 6:45 p.m. in honor of Mrs. Bass will be followed by the award dinner beginning at 7:15 p.m.
Individual tickets start at $300; tables for 10 start at $3,000. For more ticket information, go to www.brit.org, or contact Cleve Lancaster, 817.429.3200, ext. 212, or clancaster@brit.org.
About Ramona Seeligson Bass
Ramona Seeligson Bass learned firsthand the importance of responsible, hands-on stewardship of the land and its native wildlife while growing up on her family’s South Texas ranch. Seven generations of commitment to that land engendered in her a lifelong passion for conservation.
Mrs. Bass has lived in Fort Worth for the past 26 years. Believing that an intimate relationship with nature is imperative, she and her husband, Lee Marshall Bass, avid hunters and outdoorsmen, have raised their children as citizens of both Fort Worth and the wilds of South Texas.
With a shared passion for conservation, the couple has been active in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Species Survival Plan to save the critically endangered black rhinoceros, which they breed and raise on their South Texas ranch. In 1993, Mr. and Mrs. Bass established the Lee and Ramona Bass Foundation, which provides grants to conservation organizations. Exemplifying their conservation partnership, Mr. Bass served as Commissioner then Chairman of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission from 1989 to 2001, and subsequent Chairman Joseph Fitzsimons appointed Mrs. Bass Vice Chair of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Outreach and Education Advisory Committee. Mrs. Bass has also been closely involved with the Peregrine Fund for Birds of Prey which Mr. Bass now chairs.
In 2003, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton appointed Mrs. Bass to serve on the National Wildlife Refuge System Centennial Commission.
Ever the catalyst for conservation, Mrs. Bass has attracted a committed cadre of allies. Her family and friends established the Arthur A. Seeligson, Jr. Conservation Fund in memory of her father. Administered by the Fort Worth Zoo, the fund supports the conservation of native Texas wildlife and its habitat through grant awards to scientists, educators, and organizations committed to conserving the biodiversity of Texas.
In 2001, after 11 years of research and fundraising, Ramona Bass and the Fort Worth Zoo opened Texas Wild! showcasing the diversity and magnificence of Texas’ native flora and fauna. Texas Wild! has garnered national attention for its cutting-edge conservation, education, and design. Texas Wild! teaches that landowners can make a profound impact through wise land management practices whether on a vast ranch (rotational grazing, hunting, fire…) or in a small urban neiborhood (planting natives, keeping a pond…). At Texas Wild!, millions of visitors see how all of us can relate to, live on and conserve our precious natural heritage always with an eye towards fostering the belief that any real solutions must include the needs of both wildlife and people. A message that resonates not just in Texas but around the world.
An editorial in the Fort Worth Business Press on June 18, 2004, sums up the role that Mrs. Bass plays in this important educational project:
“…Mrs. Bass has made an incalculable contribution of selfless devotion and tireless commitment. She was the leader in the late 1980s and early '90s of a group that had a vision for a Fort Worth zoo that would be literally world class; that would benefit our community and especially our children as a destination for family outings, entertainment and education."
Mrs. Bass continues to lead the Fort Worth Zoo forward with its latest attraction, the Museum of Living Art (MOLA), boasting one of the best reptile collections of any herpetarium in the United States. The 30,000-square-foot exhibit houses more than 300 species of amphibians, reptiles, and more. Showcasing the beauty of nature’s creatures, the design of this extraordinary building was inspired by the animals within and their natural surroundings; a beautiful union of the created and the natural.
Empowered by the conviction that environmental education must be based on science and facts, and that education is paramount for the future of wildlife and wild places, Mrs. Bass determined that teachers’ institutes should be added to both Texas Wild! and MOLA. These institutes reject the politically correct, utopian/preservationist philosophy that if man would only disappear, nature would be perfect. Instead, they embrace a conservation/management viewpoint which recognizes that man is here to stay. Indeed, he is an integral part of a complex system which has never been, nor will it ever be, static. Although there have been failures in the past, man can be and must be a catalyst for positive change.
Along with Mrs. Bass’ devotion to her husband and children, the focus, commitment and dedication to these values has been and will continue to be her life’s work.
About the Botanical Research Institute of Texas
Opened in 1991, BRIT is a nonprofit international botanical resource center open to the public. Its mission is to conserve our natural heritage by deepening our knowledge of the plant world and achieving public understanding of the value that plants bring to life. BRIT fosters respect for ecological balance and the interconnectedness of all living things, the conservation of biological diversity, the integrity of scientific investigation and intellectual pursuits, and the desire to discover the unknown to expand humankind’s knowledge and understanding of plants in our natural environment.
More than two-thirds of all medicines found to have cancer-fighting properties come from rainforest plants, and tropical rainforests supply forty percent of the earth’s oxygen. BRIT has conducted extensive research in tropical rainforests in the Philippines, Costa Rica, and currently in Peru and Papua New Guinea. Its plant research programs help to preserve those forests and allow us to understand the impact that mankind has on rainforests through mining and other destructive operations. BRIT also closely studies the flora/fauna connection inside the rainforests to track the migration of plant species as well as identifying new ones.
With a collection of approximately one million dried plant specimens representing most of the Earth’s plant families, BRIT has one of the largest herbaria in the United States. It has the largest independent herbarium in the Southwest and one of the world’s best collections of Texas plant specimens. Its botanical library houses more than 100,000 volumes of books, periodicals, and journals from more than 100 countries.
At its Fort Worth headquarters, BRIT’s staff presents workshops and educational programs and provides consultation to research scientists, students, teachers, artists, plant enthusiasts, homeowners, gardeners, lawyers, physicians, businesses, government agencies, museums, schools, arboreta, hospitals, vineyard owners, ranchers, veterinarians, farmers, and poison control centers.
During the construction of its new "green" headquarters in the Cultural District, BRIT’s primary facility is in downtown Fort Worth in a restored historic warehouse at 500 East 4th Street.
Previous Recipients of BRIT’s International Award of Excellence in Conservation
Listed according to the year in which they received the award, previous recipients are as follows: biologist Edward O. Wilson, Ph.D. (2009); botanist and author Peter H. Raven, Ph.D. (2008); philanthropist and conservationist Ruth Carter Stevenson (2007); environmental statesman Russell E. Train (2006); Winthrop Paul Rockefeller, Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas (2005); writer John Graves (2004); British botanist David Bramwell, Ph.D., director of Jardín Botánico Canario, Canary Islands (2003); Samuel A. Cooke, one of Hawaii’s foremost conservationists (2002); the Honorable Juan Carlos Navarro, Mayor of Panama City, Panama (2001); Texas Parks & Wildlife Commission (2000); Jane Goodall, renowned chimpanzee researcher (1999); Sir Ghillean Tolmie Prance, Ph.D., director of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England (1998); Mrs. Lyndon Baines (Lady Bird) Johnson (1997); the Honorable José María Figueres, former president of the Republic of Costa Rica (1996); and Richard Evans Schultes, Ph.D., of Harvard University, world’s greatest plant explorer of the 20th century, and, posthumously, to Cyrus Longworth Lundell, Ph.D., for his work in native Texas plants and his discovery of an ancient Mayan city (1995).
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For Further Information Contact:
Cleve Lancaster, Director of Development, Botanical Research Institute of Texas, Inc.
817.332.4441, ext. 212; clancaster@brit.org; www.brit.org
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