News Release

Fish and Wildlife Service

For release November 8, 1994             Inez Connor 202-219-3861


           KENNETH H. HOFMANN OF CONCORD, CALIFORNIA,
          RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS INTERNATIONAL AWARD FOR
    THE LARGEST SINGLE CONTRIBUTION TO WETLANDS CONSERVATION

Kenneth H. Hofmann, president of the Hofmann Foundation of Concord, California, has received one of the prestigious National Great Blue Heron Awards from the North American Waterfowl Management Plan Committee for the largest contribution ever made by an individual to the North American Plan.

"Ken Hofmann's generosity is matched only by his concern for this continent's wetlands and waterfowl," Mollie Beattie, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said in announcing the award. "Time and again, he has demonstrated that concern and commitment as a lifelong sportsman and conservationist, especially during his tenure on the board of directors of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and Ducks Unlimited, Inc."

Hofmann's $3 million donation, made by The Hofmann Foundation, will go to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a non- profit foundation established by Congress to support natural resources conservation. The gift will support Ducks Unlimited's VALLEY CARE program, which focuses on the development, restoration, and enhancement of wetland habitat in the North American Plan's Central Valley Habitat Joint Venture. Hofmann, who is a rice farmer, developer, and businessman, made the contribution as a challenge gift to jump-start the restoration of two-thirds of the Central Valley Joint Venture's habitat goal of 300,000 acres.

National Great Blue Heron Awards are conferred annually by the International Plan Committee, made up of members from Canada, Mexico, and the United States, for substantial long-term contributions on a national level. The North American Waterfowl Management Plan is an agreement among the three countries to reverse the continent's loss of wetlands and stem the decline in populations of waterfowl and other migratory birds. It is carried out through joint ventures with public- and private- sector partners.

North American Plan Co-Chair Robert G. Streeter of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service presented the National Great Blue Heron Award to Hofmann at a recent meeting of the Wetlands America Trust in Gridley, California. The award is an original carving of a great blue heron by "Cork" McGee of Chincoteague, Virginia.

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