La Plata County resident David Petersen, a widely known wildlife conservationist, has been honored for his career work by the Colorado Wildlife Federation.

Petersen will receive a framed print of an elk at a federation fundraiser Sept. 18 in Denver.

“Dave is the living embodiment of an effective wildlife and public lands advocate,” said federation Executive Director Suzanne O’Neill in a statement. “His hard and effective work helped immensely to protect the state’s roadless areas.”

Petersen has been a Marine Corps helicopter pilot, Western editor for Mother Earth News, a college writing instructor and a blogger for the Huffington Post.

He also was public lands director for the Trout Unlimited Sportsman’s Conservation Project for five years.

The proliferation of all-terrain vehicles and their misuse on many of the West’s wildlife habitats has been of particular concern to Petersen.

Petersen is the author of A Man Made of Elk and Ghost Grizzlies: Does the Great Bear Still Haunt Colorado?