Reynolds receives national forestry achievement award
The Red Lake Department of Natural Resources Division of Forestry has announced that Michelle Reynolds, fire prevention technician, is the recipient of the 2009 Earle R. Wilcox Memorial National Award for individual achievement.
The award, which recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions in American Indian forestry, was presented at the 33rd annual Intertribal Council Symposium, hosted by the Nez Perce Tribe in Lewiston, Idaho.
The awards are given in honor of Earle R. Wilcox, who made significant achievements on behalf of Indian people and their forests.
Reynolds was hired as fire prevention technician in 2004 to help develop and implement the Wildland Fire Prevention Program on the Red Lake Reservation, one of the first of its type in Indian country.
Since the inception of the program, through education and information such as school presentations and community events, the numbers of human-caused fires on the reservations have decreased 60 percent.
Reynolds has designed items for the program that representatives of other American Indian prevention programs have sought to incorporate.