11/2/26 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Howard Larimer and Kathy Grant are this year’s recipients of the Jay Bell Conservation Award to be bestowed by the Lodi Sandhill Crane Association at the Crane Festival’s Homecoming Banquet on Friday, November 6th. Both awardees have provided endless hours working in wildlife and habitat conservation education.
Larimer is a 10-year volunteer with the Crane Association. He headed up the tour program at the annual Festival and served on the Board of Directors. His interest in cranes led him to become a Lead Docent with the California Department of Fish and Game Sandhill Crane Tour program, which connects hundreds of visitors each year with the cranes in the Lodi area. He has been a volunteer at Cosumnes River Preserve, and can often be seen in the early dawn hours counting awakening Sandhills on Staten Island.
A native of the southern San Joaquin Valley, Larimer graduated from Humboldt State University with a degree in biology. After service in the U.S. Army, he obtained his teaching credential from California State University Fresno and went on to teach in Fresno and Clovis Unified School Districts, later becoming a science specialist training science teachers and teaching Science Methods at CSU Fresno. After obtaining a Master’s Degree, he served as an elementary school principal in FUSD, retiring to Woodbridge with his wife, Alison, also a volunteer with the Crane Festival until her passing. Howard has one son in Boston, and his other son, Eric, daughter-in-law Katie, and grandchildren Jackson and Scarlett reside in Acampo.
Howard with his wife Pam, whom he met while organizing crane tours, are enthusiastic campers and travelers, and will be spending this winter studying the Canadian (Coastal) Sandhill Cranes in Washington.
Kathy Grant, originally from New York and New Jersey, has a BS degree in Environmental Design from UC Davis. After moving to Lodi with her husband, Joe, she became a Lodi Lake Nature Area Docent and then coordinator, which led to her involvement in the Crane Festival when it started in 1997. She continues to coordinate the Festival’s Student Art Exhibition which has connected thousands of local students with understanding the importance of watershed conservation. In her role as Watershed Program Coordinator with the City of Lodi, she developed the City’s Watershed Education Program and the Storm Drain Detectives program where students monitor the health of the Mokelumne River through water testing twice a month. In addition to watershed education videos, articles and speaker coordination, she launched the Mokelumne Current, an annual student-written watershed newspaper publication. Kathy worked with the Lodi Unified School District and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Classroom Aquarium – Salmon in the Classroom program. For several years, Grant was also a docent with the CDFW Sandhill Crane tour program at Woodbridge Ecological Reserve.
Kathy coordinates the meetings of the Lower Mokelumne River Watershed Stewardship Steering Committee which is a group of stakeholders and community members focusing on the conservation of the watershed, which is vital to Lodi – area residents, wildlife and their habitats
The Festival runs from November 6 through 8 at Hutchins Street Square. The Homecoming Banquet Dinner is at 6pm on Friday. For more information about the Festival, to book a tour, or to obtain dinner tickets visit lodisandhillcrane.org.
