The celebration of the 2019 Jeffco Open Space Conservation Awards hosted almost 300 individuals at the Lakewood Cultural Center on Thursday, January 30. These awards recognize individuals and organizations for their contributions to the JCOS mission - preserve open space and parklands, protect park and natural resources, and provide healthy nature-based experiences. The awards are named after prominent and beautiful trees found in Jefferson County. They are hand crafted by our staff from cross sections of trees from Jeffco Open Space lands, so each one is as unique as the award recipients. The awards are presented to the recipient based on the following criteria:
- ASPEN AWARD recognizes outstanding service by a volunteer in their first three years
- ROCKY MOUNTAIN JUNIPER AWARD is presented to an individual for outstanding service with a stewardship project or education initiative
- DOUGLAS FIR AWARD recognizes an organization that is an outstanding partner advancing conservation in Jefferson County
- BLUE SPRUCE AWARD is presented to an organization that creates programs or initiatives that connect people to healthy nature-based experiences
- GAMBEL OAK AWARD is presented for pioneers in preserving open space and park lands in Jefferson County
- JOHN LITZ AWARD is our most prestigious award that recognizes an individual for significant and longtime volunteer contributions to JCOS and conservation in Jeffco. The award is named after a man who helped found our organization in 1972 and has been involved as a volunteer ever since. He has served on the Jeffco Open Space Advisory Committee for 26 years and still regularly volunteers to do just about anything to advance our mission.
To view the recipient videos, please check them out on our YouTube channel.
Congratulations to all of the nominees and recipients of this year’s celebration of the 2019 Conservation Awards. Our volunteers and partnerships are instrumental to our organization and we couldn’t do all that we do without these incredible contributions.