Press Release:
The Land Trust for the Little Tennessee (LTLT) is pleased to announce that on November 3, 2012 the annual Ramsey-Brunner Land Conservationist of the Year Award was presented to Tom Hatley during LTLT’s annual Fall Celebration. LTLT established the award in 2004.
The award recognizes Hatley’s contributions to conservation across the southern Blue Ridge including his “instrumental role in the founding of LTLT and formulating conservation strategies that led to the conservation of the Needmore Tract, the Cowee Mound, and to the establishment of the Little Tennessee Sustainable Forestry Partnership.”
Professionally, Hatley has over 30 years of experience working in environmental protection, justice and leadership. He is currently the principal of Tom Hatley Heritage & Natural Resources Consulting, which works in works in land conservation and restoration, coalition and partnership building, dispute resolution, community development, and heritage and place-based conservation and interpretation strategies.
Prior to creating his own consulting business, Hatley worked with groups including The Nature Conservancy in North Carolina, the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development, and the Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition. He was also a Western Carolina University Sequoyah Distinguished Professor in Cherokee Studies from 2002 to 2008. Hatley received his undergraduate degree in History from Davidson College, and holds a Master of Forest Science Degree from Yale University, and a PhD in Colonial History from Duke University.
Hatley has served on boards for numerous organizations including the International Biosphere Trust, the Center for Native Health in Cherokee, North Carolina, Wild South, and the World Conservation Union’s Mountain Protected Areas Network, Revitalization of Traditional Cherokee Artisan Resources, Environmental Advocates of New York, and the South Appalachian Man and the Biosphere Program. He is the author of two books, The Dividing Paths: Cherokees and South Carolinians through the Era of Revolution (1995) and Uncertainty: On a Himalayan Scale (2007) co-written with Michael Thompson and Michael Warburton, as well as many articles.
