The Nature Conservancy has honored Jan TenBruggencate, a reporter for The Honolulu Advertiser, for his years of attention to Hawai'i's environment.

On Oct. 15, David C. Cole, chairman of the board of trustees for the Nature Conservancy's Hawai'i Program, gave TenBruggencate its Ko'oko'o 'Aina (Supporter of the Land) Award.

TenBruggencate has served as the Advertiser's Kaua'i bureau chief since 1971, and has written thousands of science and environment articles for the paper's statewide readership.

"As a science writer, Jan has that rare ability to make complex issues accessible to the lay reader," Cole said.

"His reporting is fair and objective and always well researched. Probably the greatest testimony to his work is that he is trusted and respected by the scientific community, a group generally wary of the media's tendency to oversimplify and sensationalize."

TenBruggencate is an avid conservationist, inveterate hiker and experienced paddler whose knowledge of Hawai'i's native flora and fauna "rivals that of most conservation biologists," Cole said.

"In matters relating to conservation," he said, "no other local journalist has contributed as much to public and political understanding of the critical issues facing our Islands today."