Lawrence Latané III, former T-D writer, honored by Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Lawrence Latané III, former staff writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, has been named conservationist of the year by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Latané covered the bay from 1986 to 2008 from the Times-Dispatch Northern Neck bureau in Warsaw. He retired from journalism last year and operates Blenheim Organic Gardens, a USDA-certified organic farm, with his wife, Becky.

"Lawrence was arguably the dean of bay journalists in Virginia," said Chuck Epes, a spokesman for the bay foundation.

"There is no doubt that Virginia policymakers, elected officials and citizens know more about the bay and care more about the bay today because Lawrence Latané was writing for the past two decades."

The conservationist award is the environmental group's most prestigious honor, given annually to recognize "extraordinary contributions to efforts" to save the bay, the organization said.

"While other Virginia reporters have written about bay issues, none did so over the years as consistently and comprehensively as Lawrence Latané," said Ann F. Jennings, the foundation's Virginia executive director.

"The bay was the focus of his work because he deliberately made it so, by virtue of his lifelong connections to the bay, his love of the bay region and his knowledge of bay issues and players."

Latané has deep roots in the region; his family's farm on the Potomac River is part of the original holdings of George Washington's family.

Latané's reporting on the bay ranged from the policy and agencies that affected the estuary to moving personal accounts about the lore and customs of the region, many of them dwindling amid the modernization and development transforming the area.

He wrote about the lives of watermen, boat builders, farmers and others whose livelihoods were linked to the bay region lands and waters.