Ginny Wood

Virginia Hill Wood (October 24, 1917 – March 8, 2013) was an American environmental activist and a pioneer in the Alaskan conservation movement. Ginny Wood co-founded the Alaska Conservation Society in 1960 with her then husband, Morton "Woody" Wood. Her parents met while attending Oregon State University, and had one other daughter, Marjorie, after Wood. Shortly after Wood's birth, the family moved to Waterville, Washington.

Wood became fond of outdoor activities such as hiking, fishing, river rafting and horseback riding during her childhood, and her family spent many summers at a cottage on Lake Chelan. While a senior at the University of Washington, she enrolled in the Civilian Pilot Training Service, passing the competitive entrance examinations to become one of five women in the program.

Environmentalist While skiing in Fairbanks after the war, she met Morton Wood, a forest ranger at Mount McKinley National Park (now Denali National Park) and Katmai National Park. They married in 1950.

In the late 1950s, Wood hosted a meeting in her living room that led to formation of the Alaska Conservation Society. Wood helped lead protests against Project Chariot, a plan to use nuclear explosives to create a deep-water harbor in northwest Alaska and she testified before Congress in opposition to the Rampart Dam. In 1960 she lobbied U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower to designate the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Wood wrote a regular column for the Northern Alaska Environmental Center's newsletter. She guided her last back-country trip at age 70 and continued to cross-country ski into her 80s.

She died in her home in Fairbanks, Alaska, of natural causes.

Awards

1985: Celia Hunter Award, Alaska Conservation Foundation 1991: John Muir Award, Sierra Club 1993: Ginny Hill Wood Award, Alaska Wilderness Recreation and Tourism Association 2001: Alaska Conservationist Lifetime Achievement Award, Alaska Conservation Foundation 2009: Florence Collins Award, Northern Alaska Environmental Center 2010: Citizens Award for Exceptional Service, United States Fish and Wildlife Service