The High Desert Museum in Bend, Ore., has named Distinguished University of Colorado at Boulder Law Professor Charles Wilkinson as the recipient of its 2003 Earle A. Chiles Award.
The award includes a $15,000 cash prize and will be presented to Wilkinson on Dec. 2 at the annual Earle A. Chiles Award Banquet in Portland, Ore.
Established in 1983, the Earle A. Chiles Award is given to those who encourage the understanding of the High Desert and for "promoting conflict resolution involving its natural and cultural resources." The High Desert is a geographic region spanning the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the west to the Rocky Mountains in the east and from southern British Columbia through Nevada's Great Basin.
Wilkinson was nominated for "his scholarship and interpretation of law, history and society in the American West, for influencing public understanding of water-related issues, and for effective mediation of complex natural resource management issues."
A distinguished author who has written numerous books, Wilkinson is considered one of the foremost experts on natural resources law in the western United States.
He has written broadly on law, history and society in the American West. His 12 books include law texts on federal public land law and Indian law.
Over the past decade, he has written a number of books that appeal to a general audience as well as legal scholars. The New York Times praised "The Eagle Bird" as a book of "elegant essays, a vigorous study of how the development of the West has both disrupted many delicate environments and profoundly reshaped the societies that emerged on the frontier."
Wilkinson graduated from Stanford Law School in 1966. He practiced with private firms in Phoenix and San Francisco and with the Native American Rights Fund in Boulder before joining the CU School of Law in 1987. He also taught at the University of Oregon, the University of Michigan School of Law and at the University of Minnesota.
Chiles is the owner of Earle Chiles and Affiliated Companies and president of the Chiles Foundation, which supports education and research projects throughout Oregon.
The High Desert Museum is a nationally acclaimed educational and cultural institution that exists to help people of all ages explore and understand the cultures, history and wildlife of the unique region.