Special to The Enterprise
April 29th, 2010

Bob Schneider of Davis was honored on Earth Day as a 2010 Environmentalist of the Year by the Environmental Council of Sacramento. Schneider is Tuleyome's senior policy director and serves as the Sierra Club Mother Lode Chapter's conservation chairman.

The award was presented for Schneider's strategic organizational work in stopping the proposed Transmission Agency of Northern California power lines project. The TANC project was slated to run through numerous sensitive habitat areas and rural communities. As a result of Schneider's organizing efforts and hard work by many partners, the TANC project was canceled last year.

Schneider, a Davis resident, has a long conservation career beginning with his volunteer work to help establish the Redwood National Park.

Later, he organized the first Earth Day event at UC Davis in 1970. He was cofounder of the California Wilderness Coalition in 1976 and co-director, with his wife Liz Merry, of the California Wild Heritage Campaign in 2000.

State Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, made the presentation to Schneider, pointing out that he has been involved in most Yolo County natural resource protection campaigns, including the effort to maintain water flows in Putah Creek, the establishment of the Vic Fazio Yolo Wildlife Refuge, the designation of Cache Creek as a state wild and scenic river, and efforts to preserve California's farmland protection Williamson Act.

Most recently, Schneider has championed the designation of the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Conservation Area, which will help protect the biological diversity of 470,000 acres of public lands stretching from Lake Berryessa and the Cold Canyon Natural Reserve to Snow Mountain Wilderness.

“We live in a truly wonderful part of the planet,” Schneider said.

“But, if we don't steward these lands, they will be degraded and lost over time. We do this for our children and their children's children in order that they might also share in this splendor and the richness of the region.”

Schneider is a co-founder of Tuleyome and most recently led a funding campaign that culminated in the purchase of 72 acres at the headwaters of Cold Canyon.