Zoe de Ropp Awarded WGC Club Conservation Award

Zoe Van Wyck de Ropp, a 34-year member of the Westhampton Garden Club, was honored with the Club Conservation Award for her lifelong dedication to conservation causes. The award coincided with the Garden Club of America’s Conservation Committee’s 100th anniversary celebration this month at member clubs like the WGC throughout the United States.

In addition to her club activities, de Ropp has supported the Quogue Wildlife Refuge by offering scholarships for children to attend summer ecology programs, sponsored landscaping improvements and helped establish the Butterfly Garden.

Through her family foundation, she financed improvements to the Charles Banks Belt Nature Center at the Refuge, named after her uncle, a pioneer conservationist who was a QWR founder.

The Pine Neck Nature Sanctuary in East Quogue, one of the few places where the pine barrens extend all the way to the south shore, was in part created with the dozen acres of family land granted to the Nature Conservancy. With additional acreage purchased as part of an agreement between the Conservancy and the Town of Southampton in 2000, residents now enjoy hiking trails, wildlife observation and water vistas.

Her love of horticulture led to expertise in floral design notable for a Silver Bowl she donated to encourage other WGC members to embrace this passion.

At the ceremony, members rose with an ovation in appreciation for all these important gifts and her legacy of environmental stewardship.