Environmental historian and University of Wisconsin-Madison professor William Cronon has been presented with The Wilderness Society’s Robert Marshall Award — the organization’s highest civilian honor — for his contributions to the protection of America’s wild places.

The award, named for wilderness visionary Robert Marshall, is given to a private citizen who has made outstanding, long-term contributions to conservation and fostering an American land ethic. As the 29th award recipient, Cronon joins an elite group of conservation leaders and influential thinkers that includes Sigurd Olson, Margaret Murie, Wallace Stegner, David Brower, Terry Tempest Williams, and Charlie and Nina Leopold Bradley.

The award citation recognizes Cronon as a champion for The Wilderness Society’s mission to inspire Americans to care for wild places. It reads in part: “Guided by your passion for this nation’s land and its people, your scholarship has cemented an understanding of Aldo Leopold’s ‘land ethic’ — so crucial to our existing in a more sustainable way — for a generation of Americans. You have challenged conventional definitions of wilderness, and with that act have strengthened and diversified support for wild lands protection across the country over the past three decades.”

Cronon — the Frederick Jackson Turner and Vilas Research Professor of History, Geography and Environmental Studies at UW-Madison — was presented with the award at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 18...