Baltimore Sun Columnist Wins National Sierra Award altimore Sun environmental reporter Tom Horton has received the Sierra Club's 1997 David Brower Award, which recognizes a professional journalist for work in the area of environmental reporting. Horton received the award at the Sierra Club's annual awards banquet in San Francisco on September 20th. "Tom is one of this country's most effective and profound environmental reporters," said Adam Werbach, Sierra Club president. "He truly knows how to take complex issue and translate those issues into stories that the average reader finds compelling." Horton, who lives in Hebron, MD., served as the Sun's first environmental reporter from 1972-1987. He left the paper in 1987 to work for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and pursue free lance writing. He rejoined the Sun staff in 1992 and writes the regular "On the Bay" column. Horton is the author of five books: Bay Country, Swanfall, Turning the Tide, Water's Way and Island Out of Time. "Tom's many books and columns have been critically important in educating the public about the Chesapeake, its problems and its potential," Werbach said. While his major focus is on the Chesapeake, Horton also has traveled to the Amazon to write about tropical rain forests and visited the Exxon Valdez oil spill site. He has received numerous honors for his work, including the National Wildlife Federation's Communicator of the Year Award and the Scripts-Howard Maning Award for best conservation series. In 1996, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation named him its Conservationist of the Year. The award is named for David Brower, former executive director of the Sierra Club and founder of the Sierra Club book publishing program. Previous recipients of the award include Charles Kuralt, Henry Muller, Barbara Pyle, Harold Gillam and Philip Shabecoff. "Tom Horton stands in the league with John Muir, David Brower, Aldo Leopold and others who have awakened people to the urgent need to protect the natural treasures of our planet Earth," Werbach said. "Through his thoughtful writing, he has made innumerable contributions to public education and environmental protection."