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Joe Sommer |
COLUMBUS, OH - The spirit of Pulitzer Prize winning-author Louis Bromfield lives on this year with the giving of the Louis Bromfield Society Award to Joseph J. Sommer, former director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR). The annual award is given to an individual or organization that has made significant contributions in literature, conservation or agriculture.
"Like Louis Bromfield, Joe Sommer believes in the importance of protecting and maintaining our natural resources for the use and enjoyment of Ohioans today and in the future," said ODNR Director Sam Speck. "He recognizes the challenges of that task." Sommer, of Canton, served as the ODNR director from 1985 through 1991. After retiring in 1991, he remained active in conservation through groups such as the Ohio Forestry Association and the Ohio Chapter of The Nature Conservancy. In 1997, Sommer received the highest conservation award in the state with his induction into the Natural Resources Hall of Fame.
The Louis Bromfield Society Award, established in 2000, is given by the Malabar Farm Foundation. Previous recipients include former Malabar Farm Manager Max Drake, former Malabar Farm Foundation Chairman Ralph Cobey, and the Noble Foundation and family.
Malabar Farm State Park, in Richland County, is Ohio's only state park that is also a working farm. Louis Bromfield created the farm in the 1940s to demonstrate his then-progressive ideas about soil conservation and sustainable farming practices. Today, many of those practices are used world wide as accepted agricultural techniques. The farm is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.