User:Sharrson/Dwight K. Shellman, Jr



Born May 9, 1934 in Windber, Pennsylvania to Dwight Killian Shellman and Grace Darling Shellman (nee Baylor). Dwight K. Shellman, Jr is a lawyer and ecology activist residing in Aspen, Colorado.

His father was a Public Health Service Dentist working for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. As a result, Dwight spent his developing years relocating throughout the United States, spending time in Savannah, Georgia; Inglewood, Colorado; and Springfield, Ohio where he graduated from high school. After graduating from high school, Dwight attended college at the University of Colorado . He was accepted to the Colorado Bar in 1959 and entered law practice with Holland & Hart in Boulder, Colorado.

Career
Dwight moved to Aspen as an attorney with Holland & Hart in 1968. His involvement in Aspen grew by leaps and bounds when he was elected a Pitkin County Commissioner in 1972. Along with commissioners Joe Edwards and, later, Michael Kinsley, Shellman became known for new policies in the county that resulted in decreasing the zoning of rural lands in the county and implementing a growth control system that extracted public benefits from developers of private lands. Many feel that his efforts act as the foundation of the county’s land use code today, in helping this area avoid the worst of modern America’s development patterns. In 2010, Shellman was inducted into the Aspen Hall of Fame. 

His interests in ecology and environmental law as well as success as a Pitkin County Commissioner led him to collaborate with Don Henley on his Caddo Lake  preservation initiative. From 1993 through 2006, Dwight Shellman served as the president of the Caddo Lake Institute, which encourages interdisciplinary work towards preservation of the ecological and cultural integrity of Caddo Lake, reputed to be the only natural lake in Texas, noted for its cypress-dominated wetlands. Mr. Shellman and the Institute have been successful in getting designation of the Lake as a wetland of international signification under the RAMSAR Treaty, in setting up cooperative lake research and monitoring programs at local colleges and high schools, in creating a new National Wildlife Refuge adjoining the Lake, and in finding sustainable uses for the nearby Longhorn Ammunition Plant. Mr. Shellman has also been active with the East Texas Communities Network which has sought to locate and interconnect conservationists in small northeast Texas towns, and organize them around local environmental problems, ranging from chicken processing wastewater to dam construction to water quality downgrades to air quality issues. 

References:
1.  Colorado Law. 2.  Aspen Hall of Fame. 3.  Texas Legacy 4.  1996 Caddo Lake Report 5.   CADDO LAKE’S COMMUNITYBASED RAMSAR ACHIEVEMENTS 6.  New York Times, "In East Texas, Residents Take On a Lake-Eating Monster," July 30, 1970. 7.   LA times, Probe to Examine Risks of Landing at Aspen Airport, April 2, 2001 8.   National Wildlife, 'Showdown at Caddo Lake: How a rock star and concerned citizens are fighting would-be water barons who want to rustle "new oil" from Texas's only natural lake,' February 1, 2004 9.   University of North Texas, The North Texan: Spring 2004, 'A common treasure'