Conservation Communicator of the Year

Tony Robinson

Everyone knows that newspapers are in a tough fight with the Internet to remain a viable delivery platform for news. In many cases, newspaper pages are shrinking, and publishers are looking for every means possible to trim content. But in the Hickory area, newspapers have expanded their conservation and outdoors coverage. There, Tony Robinson writes a weekly outdoors section for the Morganton News Herald, the Hickory Daily Record, and the McDowell News. Starting in February 2003, Tony Robinson has issued a clarion call to wildlife enthusiasts in the western part of the state. His writing subjects underscore the wide range of wildlife issues, and recreational opportunities, found in the state. From turtle poaching to the recent opening of North Carolina’s birding trail, from detailed analysis of conservation law changes to the latest space-age technological advances in fishing bobbers, Robinson has been a voice of reason, and passion, to tens of thousands of readers. With the unflagging support of Morganton News Herald and McDowell News publisher Eric Millsap, Robinson has given an unending voice to wildlife and wild places. For that, he is the 2007 Governor’s Conservation Communicator of the Year.