Oregon Wild names new award for Bend’s Lillebo

Oregon Wild is proud to announce that the recipient of the first annual Tim Lillebo Wildlands Warrior Award is Dave Willis of the Soda Mountain Wilderness Council. Willis was nominated for his tireless work in the Klamath-Siskiyou region of Oregon that he has worked for decades to protect.

Since 1983, Willis has worked with federal agency officials, local community leaders, and Congressional representatives in efforts to preserve the Soda Mountain area where the Siskiyou Mountains join the Southern Cascades.

In 2000, as a result of Willis’ work and persistence, President Clinton declared 53,000 acres around Soda Mountain as the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.

This accomplishment was not the end of Willis’ advocacy and he continued to work for Wilderness designation of the monument’s southern backcountry . Nine years later, Congress designated the Soda Mountain Wilderness area within the National Monument as part of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009.

“Of the many everyday heroes that labor to protect and preserve the wild Oregon that we love, Dave Willis is especially deserving of our admiration, gratitude, and celebration,” said Oregon Wild Executive Director Sean Stevens, upon announcement of the award. “Dave is humble and will say he does not deserve this award, but those who know what he has accomplished will be excited to honor him.”

Willis continues to advocate for protecting the biodiversity of the Klamath-Siskiyou region and expanding the boundaries of the protected area. He has also been instrumental in coordinating the large-scale buy-outs of the grazing leases covering the monument. Today, the monument and many of the immediately adjacent lands are almost entirely cow-free, and Willis has helped establish a nationwide model for grazing buy-outs that will have an impact on conservation efforts far beyond his Southern Oregon home.

“Tim Lillebo was a great friend and mentor for thirty-three years,” said Willis. “Many of us have still not recovered from his sudden loss. He was indeed a wildlands advocate that the rest of us can only hope to approximate. It’s a bittersweet, beyond-humbling honor to receive an award with Tim’s name on it. I hope we can all do him proud going forward as we work to protect and recover Oregon wild places. “

Mr. Willis will be presented the award publicly at the Oregon Wilderness Conference on Saturday in Portland. Willis will receive a gift of a $5,000 cash prize and be featured in an issue of the Oregon Wild newsletter magazine.

About the Tim Lillebo Wildlands Warrior Award

For more than 40 years, conservation pioneer Tim Lillebo of Bend devoted his life to protecting and restoring the old-growth forests, rugged canyons, whitewater, and wildlife of Oregon. From the marble halls of Congress to the dusty trails of the Deschutes, Malheur, and Wallowa-Whitman National Forests, his passion and dedication set the standard for Oregon’s conservation community to follow. As a result of his efforts, hundreds of thousands of acres of Wilderness and old-growth have been safeguarded as a legacy that will be appreciated for generations to come.

This is the inaugural year of Oregon Wild’s Tim Lillebo Wildlands Warrior Award established to recognize the work of heroes who embody Lillebo’s perseverance and fearlessness in advocating for Oregon’s treasures. The goal of this recognition is to celebrate those who share the commitment to conservation that Tim held so fiercely, and to inspire a new generation of Oregonians to follow his example in the fight to protect the wildlands, wildlife, and waters that make our state such a special place.