Dallas Safari Club named Blake Henning of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation recipient of its 2027 Conservation Trailblazer Award for advancing wildlife conservation, research, habitat, and policy. He grew up on an eastern Nebraska farm, earned degrees from the University of Nebraska and Kansas State University, and held early seasonal biologist jobs in Wyoming and Kansas.

After nine years with the State of Kansas from 1991, he joined RMEF in 2000 and rose to chief conservation officer after a 2010 lands vice presidency in Missoula. His work expanded hunting access, migration science, and elk restoration in five states, plus a 2018 appointment by the Interior secretary to the Hunting and Shooting Sports Conservation Council and the 2020 chairmanship of American Wildlife Conservation Partners. The award will be presented January 7-10, 2027, in Atlanta after work that included moving about 13,000 acres of Oregon timberland into public ownership in Malheur National Forest and creating Wild Sustenance at the University of Montana.