What’s New:

2009 marks the 20th Anniversary of the National Wetlands Awards program. Since 1989, the program has honored 150 champions of wetlands conservation; helped draw local and national media attention to their causes; and played an important role in securing funding for and convincing policy makers to consider seriously the issues they have championed.

The 2009 National Wetlands Awards winners were honored on May 12, 2009 at this years' Awards Ceremony in the Cannon House Office Building.

Also, be sure to check out our new online resource, Leading the Way, to learn more about ways to get involved in wetlands.

 

The 2009 National Wetlands Awards winners accept their awards. View more photos from the ceremony.

 

About the NWAs | Awardees | The Ceremony | Nominations | Contact Us

2009 National Wetlands Awards Winners

 

Education and Outreach

 

Ms. Susan Vincent teaches Earth and Marine Sciences and chairs the science department at The Young Women’s Leadership School of East Harlem in New York City. A college prep public school serving inner-city girls in grades 6-12, TYWLS is one of five urban all-girls public schools supported by the Young Women’s Leadership Network, which provides high quality education to low income families.

Ms. Vincent began teaching to infuse her students with a passion for wetlands protection and preservation. In 2004, she began working with wetland ecologists at Loyola University New Orleans to bring her students to southern Louisiana to conduct wetlands research over spring break. A year later, in partnership with Columbia University Lamont-Doherty researchers, Ms. Vincent and her students began field work in New York’s Piermont Marsh to assess the system’s health and observe long term changes. Ms. Vincent helps ensure that the students' data is of publishable quality and useful for long range assessment. The work serves as a springboard for student participation in science fair competitions and conference presentations. Given the success of her programs, Ms. Vincent and her collaborators plan to expand them to include a summer exchange so that the students can conduct comparative studies of the southern Louisiana wetlands and Piermont Marsh.

Ms. Vincent earned her Bachelor’s degree in Geology with a minor in Marine Science in 2000, and her Master’s degree in Science Education in 2002, both at Smith College.

Science Research

 

Dr. Carol A. Johnston has been advancing wetland science for the past 35 years, from her first job as an air photo interpreter for the New York State Wetlands Inventory to her present job as a Professor at South Dakota State University. Dr. Johnston holds a Ph.D. in Soil Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She chaired the Wetland Soils Division for the Soil Science Society of America; was the first female president of the Society of Wetland Scientists (1992-1993); and is a member of the U.S. National Committee for Soil Science.

Upon receiving her Ph.D., Dr. Johnston developed and directed the Wisconsin Wetlands Inventory for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. In addition, she served on the 1995 and 2001 National Research Council (NRC) Committees on wetland delineation and mitigation, as well as the NRC's Water Science and Technology Board, and directed the Ecosystem Studies Program at the National Science Foundation from 2000-2002.

Among her various projects, Dr. Johnston and colleagues developed new indicators of wetland conditions using vegetation data they collected at 91 wetlands across the Great Lakes. These indicators provide valuable information about the plant species that dominate these wetlands, including invasive plants.

Dr. Johnston's research and nearly 150 scientific publications have addressed topics including the landscape ecology of watersheds, wetland remote sensing, and the ecology of beaver ponds. Her 1991 review of Sediment and Nutrient Retention in Freshwater Wetlands has been cited 200 times.

Conservation and Restoration

 

Aquatic biologist, Peter Bahls, founded the Northwest Watershed Institute in 2001 to provide scientific and technical support for habitat restoration in the Pacific Northwest. Over the past eight years, NWI has implemented a model watershed protection and restoration project in the Tarboo watershed on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. The 7,000 acre watershed includes the extensive wetlands of the Tarboo Creek valley and the biologically rich habitats of Tarboo-Dabob Bay, one of the most intact estuarine bays remaining in Puget Sound. A diversity of habitats supports eagles, bear, cougar, deer, waterfowl, western toads, and five species of salmon.

Mr. Bahls and his organization, partnering with landowners and 30 other organizations, have made significant progress in protecting and restoring the streams and wetlands from the headwaters of Tarboo Creek to the estuary. With three National Coastal Wetland Conservation Grants, NWI protected over 500 acres of wetlands and floodplains through acquisition or conservation easements. And with support from NOAA Fisheries, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and various state and local sources, NWI removed road culverts that had blocked salmon access to streams and wetlands; controlled invasive species across hundreds of acres; and restored historic meanders to two miles of previously channelized streams to increase salmon habitat. With the help of hundreds of students and parents each year from local schools, Bahls and NWI have planted 60,000 native trees and shrubs to restore wetland vegetation.

 

 

Landowner Stewardship

 

Richard Thieriot, born and raised in California, has had a passion for waterfowl and wetlands since his youth. The architect of a unique plan for the creation and preservation of a wildlife habitat complex in one of the most biologically rich areas remaining in California’s Central Valley, Thieriot has led efforts to restore and manage the Llano Seco Rancho.

The last of the intact Mexican Land Grants in California, the Llano Seco Rancho has been in Mr. Thieriot’s family since the 1850s. Made up of wetlands, grasslands, and oak woodlands that support a uniquely rich and diverse array of wildlife, the ranch annually supports over 500,000 ducks and 50,000 geese, along with a variety of Endangered Species and Species of Concern. Thieriot's land protection plan has led to the permanent protection of 13,679 acres of habitat by perpetual Conservation Easements, 2,634 acres owned and managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and 1,633 acres owned and managed by the California Department of Fish and Game. Among the easement lands themselves, over 1,300 acres of wetlands have been restored.

Mr. Thieriot’s work with the environmental community and the conservation arms of both the federal and state governments has led to the protection and enhancement of the ranch’s natural resources in the face of California’s rapid economic growth, while ensuring that these conservation efforts worked in conjunction with the ranch’s diverse organic cattle and farming operation. Mr. Thieriot is currenlty working on restoring the ranch's 32-acre Bedrock Field back to native grassland and oak savanna.

State, Tribal, and Local Program Development

 

Richard "Rick" Gitar is a Water Regulatory Specialist for the Fond du Lac Reservation’s Office of Water Protection in Northeastern Minnesota. In 1998, as a Wetland Specialist for the Reservation, Gitar developed a Wetland Protection and Conservation Plan and updated the Reservation's National Wetland Inventory dataset on GIS. Since then, his duties have expanded to include the development of a wetland regulatory program as well as a Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 401 Tribal Water Quality Certification program based on EPA-approved Tribal Water Quality Standards; overseeing the CWA Section 402 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System; and managing the development of all National Environmental Policy Act documents for the Reservation.

Mr. Gitar completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and Journalism at the University of Wisconsin – Superior (UWS) in 1992. While working as an instructor for UWS (1993-1997), Rick earned a Master of Science degree in Environmental Biology from the University of Minnesota – Duluth. At the same time, he also operated his own environmental consulting company, which specialized in rare plant surveys and wetland mitigation monitoring.

Over the past four years, Mr. Gitar has shared his expertise as a valued member of the board of the Association of State Wetland Managers. Outside of work, he is pursuing his own independent study of the medicinal uses of native plants and researching the roots of his Mic Mac heritage.

 

 

Wetland Community Leadership

 

The Senior Director of Water Resources at American Rivers in San Francisco, Melissa Samet has dedicated her career to the protection and restoration of wetlands through the use of advocacy, education, and litigation. While at American Rivers, Ms. Samet has taken on some of the country’s largest, most complex, and controversial wetlands issues and projects, including providing significant contributions to the Wetland Mitigation Reform Provision in the 2007 Water Resources Development Act and helping to end the dredging of the Apalachicola River in Florida. She played a key role in deauthorizing the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, a navigation channel that damaged 20,000 acres of coastal wetlands.

Ms. Samet spent much of the past decade opposing a project in the Yazoo River by pursuing highly technical research; implementing complex political strategies; and mobilizing activists nationwide to protect over 200,000 acres of ecologically significant wetlands in the Mississippi River delta.

Prior to joining American Rivers in 2001, Ms. Samet worked for six years at Earthjustice as a litigating attorney and Director of their Marine Biodiversity Program. She has a J.D. from New York University School of Law, and a B.S. in Wildlife Biology from the University of Vermont.

20th Anniversary Award for Sustained Contributions

 

As a child, Ken Brunswick studied the abundant bird life on his family’s Holstein Dairy Farm in Ohio. Mr. Brunswick’s dream to become an ornithologist ended when he was encouraged to farm rather than enter college. However, after 20 years of owning and operating a crop farm and a Holstein Dairy Farm in Indiana, Mr. Brunswick entered Ball State University (BSU) to pursue a degree in Natural Resources and Biology. While attending BSU, Mr. Brunswick worked as Wetland Restoration Coordinator for the Whitley County Soil and Water Conservation District and Friends of the Limberlost.

After graduating from BSU, Mr. Brunswick spent the next ten years restoring the 428-acre Loblolly Marsh Wetland Preserve – part of the Limberlost Wetlands – and leading efforts to purchase and restore an additional 1,092 acres of farmed wetlands. Mr. Brunswick has written grants; negotiated acquisitions; coordinated with agencies, organizations, and local officials; given talks; overseen volunteers; and developed trails in an effort to ensure the restoration of the Limberlost. The project has provided migration and nesting sites for thousands of birds, including some endangered and threatened species. In 2003, the Limberlost and Loblolly Projects were put under the jurisdiction of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Nature Preserves to ensure long term sustainability. Since then, Brunswick wrote and received Indiana's first Wetland Reserve Enhancement Program grant and has overseen the restoration of over 1000 acres of the Limberlost Swamp Remembered Project.

 

 

• Awardees In the News
• Past Awards Recipients (1989-2008)

 

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