For immediate release
Contact: Anthony Flint 617-661-3016 x116
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (July 27, 2009) -- The National Public Radio series Shifting Ground, an exploration of land use in America supported by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, has won an award for best in-depth radio reporting in the 2008-2009 Society of Environmental Journalists Awards for Reporting on the Environment.
David Baron, the independent producer for NPR 's All Things Considered who wrote and researched the series, was praised for exhibiting "outstanding original research, excellent personalization of the stories, excellent use of natural sound, and interesting interviews to clarify each story," according to the SEJ awards announcement. "Exactly what enterprising radio journalism should be ... Each piece was entertaining and together formed a series on land-use conflicts not often reported on by the media."
In the series, five installments of which have aired thus far, Baron looks at conflicts and tensions concernign land use, growth, and development, but also relates stories of innovation and progress: a Nevada community rallying to preserve its rural character in the face of suburban sprawl, a tussle over conservation easements in Wyoming, the local perspective on a large wind farm in upstate New York, erosion on the Texas coastline, and what the public sees on the land beside the road in Florida.
The Lincoln Institute provided support for the series and made resources on land use available, through the Department of Planning and Urban Form. The series was also made possible by support from The Orton Family Foundation, based in Middlebury, Vermont.
The Society of Environmental Journalists Awards for Reporting on the Environment is the world's largest and most comprehensive awards program for journalism on environmental topics. Pollution near schools, longwall mining, biological invaders, climate change, environment and heredity, predator tagging, and tar sands were among the topics being recognized, in 31 entries in 11 categories. Reporters, editors and journalism educators who served as contest judges reviewed over 187 entries to choose the finalists representing the best environmental reporting in print and on television, radio, the Internet and in student publications. SEJ will honor the winners Oct. 7, 2009, at a ceremony in the Concourse Hotel and Governor’s Club in Madison, Wisc., on the first day of SEJ’s 19th annual conference.
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