To mark the Quivira Coalition's 10th anniversary, we are very pleased to announce a new annual award dedicated to the 'four legs' of The Quivira Coalition's original 'chair' - ranchers, conservationists, civil servants, and researchers. We wish to recognize those individuals in each category who have shown remarkable and enduring leadership in the difficult job of working in the radical center - the place where people are coming together to explore their common interests rather than argue their differences, as author and conservation leader Bill deBuys has described it.

We believe that the radical center is where real change happens - on the 'actual landscape of the back forty' as Aldo Leopold put it. But change needs strong leadership, especially in this era of seemingly endless partisanship. We think the time is right to honor those who have advanced the cause of the radical center with integrity, vision, and determination - sometimes against long odds.