What’s New:

2009 marks the 20th Anniversary of the National Wetlands Awards program. Since 1989, the program has honored 143 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. Please consider nominating someone for the 20th Anniversary National Wetlands Awards.

The 2009 nomination form and nomination guidelines are now available.

The 2008 National Wetlands Awards winners accept their awards. View more photos from the ceremony.

 

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

1992 National Wetlands Award Recipients

 

Lifetime Achievement Award

Dr. Ralph E. Good was a distinguished ecologist at Rutgers University for 24 years and served as professor of botany, director of the graduate program in biology at the Rutgers-Camden campus, and director of the Rutger’s Division of Pinelands Research. He loved the streams, pygmy pines, and cedar swamps of the New Jersey Pinelands and dedicated his life’s work to studying and protecting them.

Born in Chicago, Dr. Good earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in botany from the University of Illinois. and a Ph.D. in ecology from Rutgers University. His doctoral research was in salt marsh ecology-an area not very well studied at the time, and one that he maintained an interest in throughout his career.

Described as “a scientist with a heart,” Dr. Good’s research and spirited advocacy helped lead to the preservation of the New Jersey Pinelands. He believed that its uniqueness and fragility required extraordinary amounts of protection. His efforts produced the scientific information that led to the creation of the Pinelands National Reserve by Congress in 1978.

His love and concern for the New Jersey Pinelands allowed him to combine his commitment to public service with his research interests, which focused on the coastal plain ecosystem complex of southern New Jersey. Working closely with the Pinelands Commission, a state planning and regulatory agency with jurisdiction over the Pinelands National Reserve, he created the Rutgers Division of Pinelands Research in 1981 and served as its director. The division’s research was guided by a 1982 National Science Foundation-sponsored workshop that included 35 researchers and resource managers invited by Dr. Good to discuss ecological solutions to environmental management concerns in the Pinelands National Reserve.

He also established a research station in the Pinelands and obtained funding for several postdoctoral fellows who completed research in wetlands management, vegetation dynamics, and geochemistry. Other research projects included the impact of acid rain on pine and oak woods that have been fragmented by development.

At the research station, Dr. Good and his students studied the Pinelands under a microscope. He took a deep personal interest in his students and encouraged them to develop their own research projects. He kept track of his postdoctoral students after they left Pinelands research. Dr. Good was also a member of the university’s graduate programs in biology, ecology, and botany/plant physiology. He held a strong commitment to education and frequently taught courses in plant geography, ecology, general biology, and many special topic seminars. He was respected as a teacher and an unusually accessible and generous mentor.

Recently, Dr. Good was instrumental in having the Pinelands designated as Coastal Plain Biosphere Reserve under the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Man and the Biosphere Program (MAB). Established in 1970, the objective of MAB is to develop a scientific basis for linking the natural and social sciences for the rational use and conservation of the biosphere and for the improvement of the relationship between humans and their environment.

Dr. Good was an active member of many scientific societies. From 1983 to 1986, he served on the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. He was the business manager for the Ecological Society of America from 1973-1979, and its vice president from 1978-1980. In 1989, he was awarded a Distinguished Service Citation from the society. He also served as president of the New Jersey Academy of Sciences from 1978-1980. He was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of New Jersey Governor’s Science Advisory Committee, and a consultant to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the National Park Service. In 1985, he received the Rutgers Presidential Award for Distinguished Public Service.

Dr. Good passed away last year and is survived by his wife, Norma, and their daughter, Karen. His leadership and contributions in tidal wetlands research and Pinelands preservation will be greatly missed.

— Marjorie Wesley Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds Environmental Protection Agency

Nonprofit Category

Through his individual efforts, Henry N. Barkhausen, an award winner in the nonprofit category, has brought together a consortium of private organizations, businesses, and public agencies to protect the Cache River wetlands in southern Illinois. The cooperative Cache River Wetlands Project now encompasses 60,000 acres of wetlands that will be purchased and restored and includes work to be performed on private lands in the surrounding 478,000-acre watershed. The first land to be protected was purchased in 1970.

Barkhausen was instrumental in attracting attention to the unique ecological value of the Cache River wetlands. The Cache River is the largest remaining wetland in Illinois and retains most of its wilderness characteristics. Thousands of ducks and geese rest and feed at these wetlands as they travel the Mississippi Flyway. The area also harbors more than 40 threatened or endangered species, bald cypress trees more than 1,000 years old, and three designated National Natural Landmarks. Approximately 90 percent of Illinois’ wetlands have been destroyed.

Barkhausen has been instrumental in establishing both a new state natural area and a new national wildlife refuge. The state-owned Cache River Natural Area encompasses 8,214 acres managed to preserve, protect, and enhance the natural resources while providing the opportunity for outdoor recreation. This area is nationally significant because it contains true southern swamps at the northern portion of their range. It also provides habitat for 23 state-endangered or threatened plant and animal species. Critical habitat is managed to protect endangered, threatened, and rare species. In addition, Illinois has dedicated three areas as nature preserves to ensure permanent protection of these examples of outstanding wetland communities. The area is used for hiking, fishing, canoeing, birding, hunting, scientific research, and educational purposes.

The four land-owning partners in the Cache River Wetlands Project are The Nature Conservancy, Ducks Unlimited, the Illinois Department of Conservation, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Other agencies and groups that are playing a significant role in the protection of the Cache River wetlands are the Soil Conservation Service, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency, Southern Illinois University, and Shawnee Community College.

The struggle to save the Cache River also includes an effort by Ducks Unlimited and The Nature Conservancy, which have joined forces to protect and restore wetlands. The goal of their campaign is to raise $800,000 to acquire 2,100 acres along the Cache River and $200,000 for restoration and management.

Barkhausen is a past director of the Illinois Department of Conservation. His long association with The Nature Conservancy has been honored by an appointment as a Life Trustee of the Illinois Chapter and by an Oak Leaf Award, the Conservancy’s highest national recognition. Barkhausen’s personal example of giving his time and financial support to the project has led many others to join the effort. Most importantly, he has unified local interests, elected officials, and conservationists in a cooperative approach to solving the problems associated with protecting a complex, dynamic wetlands ecosystem.

— Charles T, Grigalauski, Environmental Management Department, Waste Management of North America

Nonprofit Category

Ross Murphy, an award winner in the nonprofit category, is a drilling manager for Helmmerich & Payne, Inc., an independent oil and gas exploration company in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 1988, Murphy created the Deep Fork Wetlands Coalition to protect 25 percent of the remaining wetlands in Oklahoma-80,000 acres that lay along the Deep Fork River. His efforts led to the creation of the Deep Fork River National Wildlife Refuge and the Deep Fork River Wildlife Management Area.

At a wetlands symposium several years ago, Murphy heard a report on a proposed Deep Fork River National Wildlife Refuge. The professional wildlife manager presenting the report painted an accurate, but very bleak picture. Wetlands in Oklahoma were disappearing at an alarming rate. The Deep Fork River represented 25 percent of the remaining wetlands in Oklahoma and were particularly threatened. The Deep Fork provides year-round habitat for many game and nongame species and has been identified by the North American Waterfowl Management Plan as one of the most important areas in the Central Flyway for wintering mallard ducks.

Motivated by what he had learned, Murphy formed a new organization called the Deep Fork Wetlands Coalition. He quickly found that preservation plans for the Deep Fork were neither new or unique. Governor Henry Bellmen, while serving in the United States Senate, had first proposed a refuge along this meandering central Oklahoma stream, but his proposal brought a strong outcry from landowners along the Deep Fork River, who were vehemently opposed to such a project. The idea was revived periodically over the next two decades, but it met the same fate each time.

Realizing the challenge was greater than he had thought, Murphy first addressed the source of resistance—the landowners. After countless hours of phone calls and knocking on doors, he obtained their support on a “willing buyer willing seller basis.” He then lined up a long list of state wildlife and sportsmen’s groups that back the concept of a Deep Fork refuge. He met with lawmakers and explained the benefits of a refuge, wrote hundreds of letters, spent countless hours on the phone, and devoted many long days in meetings with landowners, wildlife and sportsmen’s groups, and politicians selling the idea.

Murphy’s dedication over the three and one-half year campaign was rewarded on May 22, 1990, when Governor Bellmen signed into law a bill allowing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to establish a national wildlife refuge. A cooperative effort between the FWS and the state of Oklahoma, the Deep Fork National Wildlife Refuge will eventually protect 20,000 acres of wetlands along the river. As a result of Murphy’s efforts, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation has pledged up to $1 million for the acquisition of bottomland hardwoods along the Deep Fork, and Congress has allocated over $2 million since 1990 to begin acquisition of the 20,000-acre refuge. To date, Oklahoma has purchased approximately 4,500 acres for protection as a wildlife management area.

The Refuge will also bring economic benefits. Once it is established, approximately 150,000 visitors to the Refuge are expected to generate $1.7 million annually for the local economy.

Murphy has been cited by the Oklahoma Wildlife Federation, National Wildlife Federation, and The Nature Conservancy for his conservation work.

— Dwight Inman, Deep Fork Wetlands Coalition

Private Sector Category

Aldo Leopold would have liked Indiana farmer Ray McCormick, the award winner in the business category. Based on Leopold’s conservation lessons of half a century ago, McCormick is what Leopold hoped all of today’s landowners would finally become—a devout steward of the land carrying forward the land ethic to a new generation of landowners.

Growing up on his family farm in Knox County in southwest Indiana, McCormick learned about conservation farming from his grandfathers and father. McCormick also began to learn about the natural world, especially as it relates to the biological wonders of Half-Moon Pond, the huge ox-bow wetland complex along the White River near his farm. His love and fascination of wetlands was close to home.

McCormick graduated form Colorado State University with concentrations in agriculture, forestry, and wildlife. Upon returning to take over operation of the 1,500-acre family farming complex, he soon implemented conservation tillage practices to minimize erosion and build the soil. He also began restoring quail, rabbit, and song bird habitats. But his first love, wetlands, was where he concentrated.

In 1987, he actively supported establishing the Pakota River National Wildlife Refuge and became acquainted with the activities of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). He prepared a slide program about the Pakota River and bottomland hardwood habitat and briefed regional FWS administrators, Indiana conservationists, service clubs, and school groups about the values of preserving this habitat as a refuge.

In the following year, he became one of the first cooperators with the FWS in its fledgling wetland restoration program. With the FWS, and on his own, McCormick restored more than 130 acres and flooded hundreds of acres of cropland each fall for migratory birds. He has constructed and placed over 50 goose nesting structures on his and neighboring wetlands, maintains nesting cover around water edges, delays mowing on upland areas to reduce nest destruction, plants upland food plots, and utilizes minimum tillage practices in his farming operation. He prepared a videotape on the construction and use of nesting structures that will be used to encourage local farmers and others to build and place nesting structures properly. He has become a leading ambassador for the FWS wetland restoration program.

As McCormick continued to improve the natural resources on his farm, it became a national model. In 1988, he was named Conservationist of the Year by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. The Sierra Club featured his wetland enhancement activities in a national video. So did the U.S. Soil Conservation Service in its instructional video, “The Wealth in Wetlands.” McCormick was also the preeminent focus of a major conservation promotion by ESPN, and has been spotlighted in numerous newspaper features and publications, such as National Wildlife magazine.

McCormick also was invited to testify at a public hearing before the national Domestic Policy Council’s Task Force on Wetlands and recently testified before the House Appropriations Committee on the value of the FWS’s Partners for Wildlife Program, especially the voluntary wetland restoration component. One of his major achievements was being selected “Special Honor Winner” over 174 other national winners in the Farming in the Flyway Contest sponsored by Successful Farming magazine, Ducks Unlimited, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the American Cyanamid Company.

As Leopold was in his day the best known conservationist farmer in the land, Ray McCormick is arguably today’s finest conservation farmer, and welcomes visitors to his land for a personal tour to explain his life’s work.

— David C. Hudak, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Special Award for Public Policy Leadership

Governor George A. Sinner, the recipient of the Special Award for public policy leadership, is renowned as a man who loves an issue in need of a solution. An eternal optimist, he resolved to bring an end to the wetlands disputes and the loss of wetlands in North Dakota.

Through the 1970s and into the 1980s tensions surrounding wetland issues escalated. A collision course between those advocating developing wetlands and those preferring to preserve them was preordained. In North Dakota, the struggle was adorned with the title “the wetland wars.” Perhaps no other contemporary issue in the prairie region has generated so much controversy and animosity.

In North Dakota, about half of the state’s original wetlands remain. The wetlands of the prairie pothole region were very early recognized as a major breeding area for waterfowl in North America. The wetlands that are left in North Dakota provide the habitat that produces about 50 percent of the waterfowl in the United States. Since the settlement of the region began less than 100 years ago, much of the prairie and its associated wetlands have been plowed and cultivated for agriculture. Each year, more and more wetlands were drained. Approximately 95 percent of North Dakota’s wetlands are privately owned. The conflict between agricultural interests and environmentalists over wetlands is one of the most important lasting issues in the region.

In 1987, Governor Sinner established a State Wetlands Management Committee to deal with wetland policy issues as they arose within the state. He worked closely with the state legislature and policy makers in the public and private sectors on wetland matters. As a result of his leadership, North Dakota enacted a no net loss of wetlands law in 1987, which requires that for every acre of wetland destroyed another acre must be restored or created. The purpose of this law is to protect the 2.5 million acres of remaining wetland resources in the state while providing flexibility to allow some conversion to occur. Prior to the passage of the act, wetlands were being lost at the rate of 20,000 acres per year in North Dakota. Since its enactment, there has been a net gain of approximately 2,500 acres of wetlands.

The North Dakota State Water Commission (SWC) and the Game and Fish Department (FGD) have the primary responsibility for implementing the state’s no net loss law. The SWC has the lead in the regulatory component of the program, while the FGD provides biological technical assistance and general oversight. The North Dakota Water Users Association provides wetlands outreach, meeting with local organizations and individuals at the grassroots level on a regular basis. It provides information about the regulatory and nonregulatory aspects of the state’s wetlands protection program, including the Swampbuster provisions of the 1990 Farm Bill. Governor Sinner has used the State Wetlands Management Committee to provide continuity among state agencies.

On the national level, Governor Sinner met regularly with federal agency managers to resolve long-standing wetland management concerns. Through his foresight, he forged a 12-point agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agreement, among other things, establishes procedures for resolution of disputes and conflicts through mediation, the trademark approach of Governor Sinner. Also, as Chairman of the National Governors Association’s Wetlands Committee, Governor Sinner responded to wetlands issues from a cooperative perspective, seeking to establish partnerships between adversaries whenever possible.

In addition, Governor Sinner is the lead governor for the Western Governors Association on water issues. As a member of the Federal Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, he chairs the Senior Advisory Council on Water Governance. Governor Sinner received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota.

Governor Sinner’s efforts were tireless, effective, and unprecedented. Through his leadership, a unique coalition of former adversaries—water-rights, agricultural, and environmental interests—has formed partnerships which are proving mutually beneficial to all North Dakotans.

— Keith Trego, Deputy Director, North Dakota Game and Fish Department

State Government Category

Kenneth F. Bierly, an award winner in the state government category, is the model of an improbable bureaucrat. In less than 10 years, he has contributed to the protection and management of wetlands not only in Oregon,where he heads the state’s wetlands program under the Division of State Lands, but throughout the United States.

Among Bierly’s contributions are comprehensive state wetlands legislation, Oregon’s exemplary wetlands program, a wetlands priority plan, the beginnings of a mitigation bank program, a wetlands conservation planning program, an educational program, and an enthusiastic and dedicated staff. But above all, Bierly has given credibility to the role of government in wetland management among public agencies, farmers, developers, and environmentalists.

During the summer of 1988, Bierly gathered together an unlikely group of representatives of development interests, public agencies, agriculturalists, environmentalists, and academics. For six months, the ad hoc group met monthly (more frequently in small groups) and eventually hammered out comprehensive wetlands legislation. The bill, which passed unanimously in June 1989, was largely the product of Bierly’s vision, knowledge, and skill in getting people to reach consensus.

The wetlands bill was founded on the state’s removal-fill law, which is comparable to the federal Clean Water Act’s §404 program. Over the years, increased conflicts had developed between the needs of statewide planning, the removal-fill permitting program, and individuals with conflicting wetland interests--conflicts that were diffused through the provisions of the new act. These provisions include a state Wetlands inventory, opportunities to issue general authorizations, provisions for local wetland conservation plans with advanced permitting and mitigation, a clear agricultural exemption, strong direction for public wetlands education, and a requirement that local governments notify the Division of State Lands of proposed activities in mapped wetlands.

Oregon’s Wetlands Priority Plan (1989), another one of Bierly’s efforts, provided the framework, criteria, and direction required under the federal Emergency Wetlands Resources Act. The plan summarizes the diverse agency interests in wetlands, trends in wetland loss, and threat of future loss, and sets a three-point agenda: state wetlands inventory completion, trend analysis, and identification of significant wetlands. Bierly also initiated a much-needed public wetlands education program. The program uses videos, slide shows, brochures, and workshops to teach wetland functions and values, delineation, state and federal wetlands regulations, and wetlands conservation planning.

A native Oregonian, Bierly graduated from Oregon State University and earned a master’s degree from Colorado State University, where he studied subalpine wet meadows. Bierly has been Oregon’s principal proponent for sound wetlands management since joining the Division of State Lands in 1983. Prior to joining the division, he engaged in wetlands consulting for 10 years.

In 1991, he was appointed to the Association of State Wetland Managers Board, and he has testified before congressional committees on wetlands issues. Bierly was instrumental in obtaining an Environmental Protection Agency grant for wetlands conservation planning in 1991. Bierly has been able to build his programs on a strong and continuing scientific foundation tempered by his experience of real-world constraints. Through his commitment, knowledge, skill, and energy, he sets a standard for state government employees that is hard to match.

— Robert F. Frenkel, Department of Geosciences, Oregon State University

State Government Category

David G, Burke, an award winner in the state government category, has distinguished himself by the magnitude of his impact on Maryland’s wetlands. Since joining the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in 1980, Burke’s most outstanding achievement is his start-to-finish involvement with Maryland’s model Nontidal Wetlands Protection program.

In 1982, he persuaded the DNR that local governments could play a substantial role in protecting nontidal wetlands if more was known about the ecological importance of nontidal wetlands and how to protect them. With the assistance of Jon Kusler, executive director of the Association of State Wetland Managers, and the Environmental Law Institute, Burke served as project manager and co-author of Nontidal Wetlands Protection: A Handbook for Maryland Local Governments. Armed with a slide show, Burke talked to any local government officials who were willing to listen.

By 1985, the program had developed into a full-blown training and education series funded as part of Maryland Governor Hughes’ Chesapeake Bay initiative. Maryland’s DNR and Burke were subsequently awarded the National Planning Award by the American Planning Association for the handbook and its associated program.

In his role as the state’s principal technical expert for nontidal wetlands, Burke was in a position to influence the development of Maryland’s new critical areas program and help compile criteria and guidelines for protecting nontidal wetlands in the critical areas. Although this program established a solid base for protecting nontidal wetlands, its jurisdiction was limited and much of Maryland’s nontidal wetlands resource base was not protected.

Hoping to establish a strong statewide nontidal regulatory and management program, Burke moved to the regulatory arm of the DNR in 1987. Shortly thereafter, he became the principal staff person supporting the formal Nontidal Wetlands Task Force organized by the DNR under the auspices of the governor. Over six months, the task force held several intensive workshop sessions. Burke was responsible for coordinating and compiling background issue papers and pushing the participants to reach consensus.

In January 1989, the task force’s final report became the basis for a comprehensive nontidal wetlands bill sponsored by Governor Donald Schaefer. Burke provided substantial technical support and policy advice on all aspects of the proposed bill to DNR and administration officials. Upon the bill’ s enactment, Burke and his staff immediately went to work developing the program’s regulations. This involved many statewide town meetings, proposing regulations the public, and soliciting their views. After several iterations, the regulations were adopted.

Burke then turned his efforts toward negotiating a statewide general permit—an essential ingredient of the program-from the Army Corps of Engineers. During the legislative debate, the governor’s office representatives and DNR officials had promised the program would closely coordinate with the Corps to expedite and streamline the permit process. With Burke’s technical assistance, a general permit was secured shortly after the program’s start-up date. After one year of operation under his direction, the program was able to cut the rate of nontidal wetland losses substantially and balance permitted nontidal wetland losses with required acreage gains.

Through his decade-long efforts to establish a model nontidal wetlands program in Maryland, Burke has contributed to natural resources conservation and served as an example of innovation and dedication for the Maryland DNR, the rest of the Chesapeake Bay region, and the nation.

— Craig Potter, Partner, Oppenheimer, Wolff & Donnelly

Local Government

Steve Gordon, the award winner in the local government category, has been a land-use planner with Lane Council of Governments (L-COG) since 1975, where he is currently senior program manager. L-COG is a public agency that provides planning services for local units of government in Lane County Oregon, including land use, natural resource management, and data management. Gordon manages the program elements associated with the Eugene-Springfield metropolitan plan (population 190,000), boundary changes, and natural resource management. His planning skills often result in benefits to the greater Eugene-Springfield community, as demonstrated through his vision and leadership in developing and preparing the West Eugene Wetlands Special Area Study (WEWSAS) for the city of Eugene.

WEWSAS is a comprehensive wetlands management plan involving a study area of over 8,000 acres. As project manager, Gordon developed a plan that resolved a complex land management dilemma-the discovery of nearly 1,500 acres of jurisdictional wetlands that were previously zoned for industrial, commercial, and residential use since the mid-1950s. The plan balances resource protection needs with urban development on this land. The investment of over $20 million in public infrastructure to serve this area helped to create a negative local attitude toward the state and federal agencies responsible for administering wetlands law. From the beginning of the study through the plan’s adoption, Gordon was instrumental in providing the direction and confidence for finding a solution to the dilemma.

On the behalf of the city of Eugene, he applied for and received a grant from The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to conduct the study. He developed a work program and planning process for preparing, reviewing, and adopting the plan. The planning process relied heavily on public education and involvement, and interaction with a technical advisory committee composed of regulatory and resource agencies. This process proved to be a hallmark in gaining consensus on the final plan, and was acknowledged as an effective and innovative approach by the EPA. The EPA has since awarded a $100,000 grant to L-COG to prepare a model for comprehensive wetlands planning for use nationwide.

Aspects of the plan that are attributed to Gordon’s direction include a multiple objective regional solution for flood control, water quality, wildlife habitat, education, research, and recreation and creating a balance between resource protection and economic development needs. Through Gordon’s direction, a combined effort by The Nature Conservancy (TNC), property owners, environmental groups, the business community, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the Oregon congressional delegation resulted in a congressional appropriation of $2 million in land and water conservation funds for wetlands acquisition. The funding level is expected to reach $9 million in the next two years. Under a comprehensive management structure, the BLM will own wetlands and receive management assistance from TNC, the city of Eugene, and L-COG-an unprecedented partnership which will ensure the ongoing success of this project. The plan has been prepared, reviewed by the public, and is in the final adoption phase.

Gordon earned a Bachelor of Science in geography and a graduate degree in urban studies from the University of Oregon. He is recognized as one of the outstanding land-use planners in Oregon and received the Oregon Chapter American Planning Association award in 1990 for “Distinguished Leadership by a Professional Planner.” As a result of Gordon’s efforts, WEWSAS is being touted as a national model for resolving wetlands dilemmas at the local level.

— Tim Bingham, Associate Planner, Lane Council of Governments

 

ELI HOME | ABOUT ELI | SUPPORT ELI | PRESS RELEASES | ORGANIZATIONAL MEMBERS
ENVIROMENTAL LAW REPORTER | THE ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM | NATIONAL WETLANDS NEWSLETTER