Outstanding Public Lands Professional Awards - 2004

Manager/Managerial - Administrative Category

Dave Hunsaker
Dave Hunsaker

THE PUBLIC LANDS FOUNDATION has named Dave Hunsaker, Bureau of Land Management Manager of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah as the Outstanding Public Lands Professional Manager for 2004.

Foundation President George Lea announced the selection, which recognizes Dave for not only an outstanding 35-year career with BLM, but for his leadership and professionalism in working with the local communities and implementation of management for the 1.9 million-acre national monument established on September 18, 1996 by Presidential proclamation.

Under Dave’s leadership, the local communities surrounding the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument have become more aware of the outstanding recreational and fragile ecological values of the area.

Dave has worked tirelessly to bring divergent interest groups together to identify and achieve common goals.  Under intense scrutiny and debate, Dave has demonstrated an effective personal style to keep multiple interests together at the table to identify mutual win-win solutions.

This achievement will be permanently inscribed on the “Hall of Fame Award” plaque at the Bureau of Land Management headquarters in Washington, D. C.  This is another example of a professional career employee’s willingness to chart new direction in protecting and enhancing natural resources.