Conservation                                            Projects        

The Clark Waldram Conservation Fund                                Guidelines

The Aquarium and Zoo Facilities Association is dedicated to increasing our understanding and appreciation of the inherent worth of all life forms.  Toward that objective, we commit our combined efforts and influence in conserving all plants, animals, and natural resources while educating others as to their infinite limits and intrinsic values.

How can I tell you what the Clark Waldram Conservation Fund is? I can say it is an amount of money set aside by the AZFA to support local and worldwide conservation programs and projects up to $1500, but it is much more than that.

I will start by saying that, at AZFA's mid-year board meeting at the Toledo Zoo in March 2001, I was asked to write a summary about the Clark Waldram Conservation Fund and what it does. I can't do that without telling you of the spirit in which it was conceived.

It is ironic to me that I was given the assignment at the Toledo Zoo, because it was at the Toledo Zoo in 1995 (AZFA's second annual conference) that I heard the founding fathers of AZFA talking about starting a conservation fund. Ah, the foresight they had, I could not see it. We did not know if we would have the money to cover the conference, let alone start a fund to support conservation projects. Well, I thought, talk is cheap, and we did talk about it alot for a couple of years.

The spirit of the Conservation Fund, which was long on spirit and short on funds, got a real boost when Tina Walsh, Pittsburgh Zoo, organized our first silent auction to raise money for a conservation fund. This took place at our fourth conference at the Riverbanks Zoo in 1998. Now we had a little money to go along with a big spirit.

It wasn't long after that the vision came together. At our fifth conference in San Diego (1999), AZFA was petitioned for use of the fund; $1,000 by Mary Wykstra-Ross for building materials that she would use for two conservation projects in association with Utah's Hogle Zoo. The projects were to take place in the year 2000-Parc Ivoloina (lemur and radiated tortoise) project at Betampona Natural Reserve in Madagascar and the Cheetah Conservation Fund project in Namibia. Our AZFA members enforced that support holding a raffle for a cordless drill supplied by Keith Schnell of the Indianapolis Zoo, which raised an additional $542. With Mary's projects, AZFA had a true Conservation Fund. The vision was complete, except for one thing...

At the 2000 Conference in Calgary, the AZFA membership voted on a name for the Conservation Fund. We decided to honor the memory of Clark Waldram of the Kansas City Zoo. Clark was a devoted AZFA member who shared his knowledge and ideas through many articles in The Outlet. Clark tragically died in an accident on his way home from work in September 2000.

Once again, we have come full circle. The 2001 recipient of funding from AZFA's Clark Waldram Conservation Fund is Mark Hendricks of the Toledo Zoo for the Hispaniolan Hutia and Hispaniolan Solenodon Breeding Program at Parque Zoologico Nacional in Hispaniola.

So you see, AZFA's Clark Waldram Conservation Fund was born of vision, nurtured on spirit, raised on dedication and named with honors. This is what AZFA and the Clark Waldram Conservation Fund is about.

-Joe Matyas, Conservation Committee Chair
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo