To The Leader

Wildlife Journalist Chester Moore of West Orange was honored for his longtime coverage of the red wolf along with his Wild Wishes® program at the prestigious Texas Outdoor Writer’s Association (TOWA) conference in Corpus Christi.

Moore took first place honors for “Best Internet Story” for breaking the red wolf gene rediscovery story in Galveston, Texas.

His first published article was on the subject of red wolves and red wolf/coyote hybrids existing in Texas back in 1992 when he was 19 years old via The Opportunity Valley News. Since then he has published more than 100 articles on the topic as well as dozens of broadcasts on his long-running radio program on Newstalk 560 KLVI.

“It’s a real honor to be recognized for this story on a topic that literally started my career regarding such a major scientific discovery and on a species that means a lot to me. Red wolves have held my heart since I first learned of them in third grade,” Moore said.

If anything means more to him than wildlife it’s hurting children.

Moore was also won first place in special projects/conservation for his Wild Wishes story on fishgame.com regarding the program of the same name he and his wife Lisa founded to give animal-loving children who have a terminal illness or have lost a parent or sibling their dream wildlife encounters.

“With social media young people don’t have to be the conservationists of tomorrow. They can be that today by raising awareness on social media. And who better to support at-risk wildlife than children who have faced great challenges?” Moore said.

On the day of the award ceremony, the Moores were celebrating the fifth anniversary of the program with a five-year reunion that saw 35 of the 86 kids that are part of the program gather.

“We love this program and it’s such an honor to get to work with these kids. What we are doing now is taking these kids and training them to be wildlife conservationists. We are teaching them how to do wildlife photography, blog, talk in front of a camera and use animals from our zoological facility as ambassadors for endangered wildlife. It’s very exciting,” Moore said. “We believe in them as people and in their potential and are more committed to kids and wildlife than ever.”

Moore also placed in best outdoors publication for Texas Fish & Game, best opinion writing and outdoor photography in the same publication and outdoors book for his limited-edition title “Called To Conserve”.

Moore is Editor-In-Chief of Texas Fish & Game magazine, operates The Wildlife Journalist blog and is the founder of Kingdom Zoo Wildlife Center® in Pinehurst and the Wild Wishes® program.