Mount Rosa Chapter, NSDAR presents the NSDAR CONSERVATION MEDAL to Nationally Renowned Photographer, Publisher, Teacher, Preservationist, John Fielder

Littleton, Colorado. – The Mount Rosa Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution in Littleton, Colorado presented the NSDAR Conservation Award to John Fielder on Monday, February 2, 2004.  The DAR Conservation Committee was established in 1909 to help preserve our global environment in order for our society to wisely utilize, repair, and restore the earth’s resources.  Forest , water, minerals, soils, wetlands, and wildlife have continuously needed our careful attention.  For almost a hundred years, DAR has an impressive record of tree planting, recycling, and additional conservation efforts to protect our vital natural resources.  This committee also awards the NSDAR Conservation Medal recognizing individuals with distinguished conservation records of outstanding efforts in wildlife, nature centers, resource management, park establishment, youth leadership, the media, and education.

This year this award was given to a nationally renowned photographer, publisher, teacher, and preservationist.  He hikes and skis hundreds of miles in Colorado alone each year, and drives thousands of miles in order to record on film its most magnificent natural places.  For the past 30 years, no one has traveled this state quite like him, from its rolling plains to the soaring Rocky Mountains , to the Western Slope’s remote plateau and river canyons.

He visited Colorado at the age of 14 during a school field trip from North Carolina .  “In all my life”, he said, “ I have not forgotten my first sign of the Rockies rising up before me over the plains.  I was simply smitten by this wall of snow-capped peaks above a treeless plain.  And the word – Colorado , it was the most poetic name for a place I had ever heard.  I realized that moment that someone or something had guided me to this place, and that I belonged here for the rest of my life.”  Though he started his family and planted his Colorado roots as a department store executive, he ultimately turned his avocation into a career. 

He is the photographer of more than 30 exhibit-format and guidebooks and might be best known for creating Colorado ’s best-selling book ever, Colorado : 1870-2000.  For this initiative, he conceived a then-and–now concept by photographing the same sites that pioneer photographer William Henry Jackson had taken a century earlier.  He studied over 22,000 negatives, prints, albums, and lantern slides of the Colorado Historical Society, and other Jackson collections in the Denver Publish Library and US Geological Survey.  Standing exactly where Jackson stood, and pointing his own camera in precisely the same direction, he has rephotographed Jackson 's images to capture the startling change that has occurred over the last century. 

He has worked tirelessly to promote the protection of Colorado ’s open space and wild places.  His photography has influenced people and legislation, earning him recognition including the University of Denver ’s Ritchie Award for Corporate Responsibility, the University of Colorado ’s Distinguished Service Award, the National Humanitarian Award from the National Parks and Recreation Association, and the Sierra Club’s Ansel Adams Award.  In 1992, he helped found the Board of the Great Outdoors Colorado , which uses lottery profits to protect open space and wildlife habitat.  He speaks to thousands of people each year to rally support for land-use and environment issues.  He lives with his family near Denver .

Conservation Committee Chairman, Donna Elin and Chapter Regent, Marilyn Metz presented Mr. Fielder with an NSDAR Conservation Medal and Certificate.