CHEYENNE — Daryl Lutz, Wyoming Game and Fish Department wildlife management coordinator in the Lander Region, was recently awarded the Phillip W. Schneider Lifetime Achievement Award from the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. Lutz received the award at WAFWA’s summer meetings in Provo, Utah, in June.

Lutz has worked for Game and Fish for 35 years. He began his career as a habitat biologist in 1990 in southwest Wyoming, and also was a wildlife biologist. Lutz has been a leader in Wyoming and regionally in efforts including the Wyoming Mule deer Initiative, co-chair of the Wyoming Bighorn Sheep Working Group and instrumental work with the Wild Sheep Foundation. Lutz is the Wild Sheep Initiative Coordinator for WAFWA, and has driven population monitoring, harvest strategy development and test-and-remove initiatives for bighorn sheep throughout the West.

“Daryl’s service has been exemplary,” said Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce. “Daryl has been a leader in Wyoming and regionally. His role as the WAFWA Wild Sheep Initiative Coordinator, and his wildlife crossing work with the local partners and Wyoming Department of Transportation, have had a profound effect and reach in our conservation efforts.”

This award is named for Schneider, whose legendary commitment to fish and wildlife resources spanned more than 40 years in a career in which he served as director of Oregon’s game and fish agency, and later as a commissioner and commissioner emeritus of Oregon’s Fish and Wildlife Commission. This award recognizes an individual who has dedicated his or her entire career to conservation of fish and wildlife resources in the West.

—WGFD—