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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.

 

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1994 National Wetlands Award Recipients

 

Outstanding Program Development

Dennis Bowker, an award winner in the Outstanding Wetlands Program Development category, is a Resource Conservationist with the Napa County Resource Conservation District. Over the last ten years, he has been involved in a variety of projects to help grape growers throughout Napa Valley improve their conservation practices. Throughout his work, Bowker has consistently fought the notion that business people and regulators must be at odds with one another. He has worked to educate private landowners and government agencies alike about the advantages of working cooperatively. Bowker’s approach has successfully changed land management practices throughout Napa County and significantly enhanced the wetlands of the northern San Francisco Bay. Specifically, Bowker has worked to write conservation regulations for Napa County that require review and approval of an erosion control plan for new development projects on slopes.

He was also the principal author and editor of the Hillside Vineyard Development Manual for the Napa County Resource Conservation District. In 1988, Bowker established a model program for resource management with the Huichica Creek Land Stewardship project, a watershed res toration effort in a small tributary of the Napa Marshes, a large wetland area in northern San Francisco Bay. The project p romoted voluntary efforts by growers to protect biodiversity, reduce nonpoint source runoff, and grow better grapes. The components of the plan included: demonstrations of alternative farming practices, an irrigation study, a plan for streambank stabilization and revegetation, and creation of an overall plan to enhance the health of the stream and the entire watershed. Bowker has also developed similar watershed enhancement plans for the Fagan Creek and Sheehy Creek watersheds. His message is that alternative agricultural practices can reduce erosion and improve both water quality and profitability.

One of his current projects is the Napa River Watershed Integrated Resource Management Plan. This plan seeks to increase biological diver sity, increase the long-term health of agricultural and open-space lands, enhance and protect fisheries, promote public education programs about urban stormwater pollution, and enhance wildlife habitat throughout the Napa River Watershed. Bowker is also currently providing leadership in an interagency effort, called the North Bay initiative, to develop a wetlands resource management plan for the lower portions of the Napa River,, Sonoma Creek, and Petaluma River watershed. This area, known as the San Pablo Bay, encompasses more than 50,000 acres of former baylands and marshes, most of which are now agricultural. Bowker has helped to insure that farmers and other landowners are incorporated fully into resource planning efforts by hosting a series of workshops with local government officials and the general public. This initiative has the potential to increase the overall wetlands resource base in California by more than 10 percent.

Bowker’s watershed projects have included such major wineries as the Robert Mondavi Winery, Buena Vista Vineyards, Comaine Chandon, and the Sterling Winery, as well as the Carñieros Quality Alliance. The No rth Bay Initiative includes formal participation by over ten federal, state, and local conservation agencies. Dennis Bowker has demonstrated that conservation and enhancement of fish and wildlife are not only compatible with agricultural practices, but that alternative agricultural practices can be more cost effective than conventional practices. Bowker has persevered and it has paid off handsomely. Bowker himself explained, “Ten years ago, growers thought I was a lunatic. Now I’m part of the mainstream.” That mainstream will be flowing faster and cleaner in the future thanks to the considerable efforts of Dennis Bowker.

— Amy Zimpfer, U.S. EPA Region 9

Outstanding Program Development

Mike Houck, Director of the Wetland Conservancy’s Urban Streams Council program in Portland, Oregon, an award winner in the Outstanding Wetlands Program Development category, has worked for more than two decades to bring attention to wetlan ds and wildlife in urban environments. In the Pacific Northwest, where city dwellers are used to finding nature outside the urban environment, Houck has taught them to look inside. He has shown them urban wetlands and other habitats worth watching, restoring, and protecting.

Houck’s involvement with Portland’s wetlands dates back to 1970, when he worked as a member of the Portland Audubon Society to protect Oaks Bottom, a wetland within sight of Portland’s downtown. Audubon worked with neighborhood groups and others to convince the city council to designate the land as the city’s first urban wildlife refuge.

In 1982, Houck became Portland Audubon’s urban naturalist. In that role, he created a reliable, objective inventory of wetlands and other wildlife habitats in the Portland area and made the inventory a central t ool on the desk of city and county planning staffs, commissions, and elected officials. While at Audubon, Houck began to organize a series of “Country in the City” symposia, bringing experts from around the world to discuss protection of urban habitats. As a result of these programs, metropolitan water quality agencies are using multi-objective strategies to manage for fish and wildlife habitat, recreation, open space, and aesthetic values in their pollution and flood reduction programs. Since 1989, Houck has been volunteer director of Portland Audubon’s Metropolitan Wildlife Refuge System Project, working to establish a regional system of urban wildlife refuges.

In 1993, Houck helped found the Urban Streams Council, which now facilitates projects throughout the region. For example, in North Portland, the council is helping young former dropouts earn high school credits working on an ecological restoration project near the Columbia Slough. The council also provides support and advice to local citizens groups that focus on a variety of watershed problems in the Portland metropolitan region. The council is reaching out to the business and the corporate community in Portland to invite them to become better stewards of the wetlands on their property. It presents workshops for developers on nature-friendly land uses. Working with Portland State University’s Center for Urban Studies, the council has compiled a database of over 50,000 people in the area who have expressed interest in urban natural resource, watershed, or planning issues. They are coding this list geographically.

Soon they will be able to identify concerned citizens living in a particular watershed or near a particular stream. Though the council has a regional focus, as a part of the nationa l Coalition to Restore Urban Waters (CRUW), its work has attracted national attention. With Ann Riley of California’s Urban Creeks Council and other grassroots activists, Houck helped organize the highly successful CRUW/Friends of Trashed Rivers conference last September in San Francisco. For the first time, river groups from all over the country came together to discuss urban waterway restoration. In typical Houck style, he served, as the need arose, as planner, coordinator, master of ceremonies, speaker, facilitator, stage hand, and social director. In the last ten years, Houck has dealt with just about every government agency in the Portland area and has served as a member or advisor to more than twenty local boards, committees, and task forces. Northwesterners have always treasured the natural beauty of their countryside. Through his tireless studying, teaching, and testifying, Mike has helped them realize that nature lives inside their cities as well. Along the way, he has become something of a local celebrity, Portland’s Urban Naturalist, and has come to personify the Northwest’s love of nature and commitment to integrating wetlands and streams into the urban infrastructure.

— Kenneth Rosenbaum, Environmental Policy Consultant

Outstanding Program Development

Ron Howing, an award winner in the Outstanding Wetlands Program Development category, has been a wildlife biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in northwest Iowa since 1963. Throughout his career Howing has been involved with many successful programs, but his innovative work in the field of wetland restorati on constitutes his greatest contribution. Howing works in the heart of the prairie pothole region of Iowa, an area that once contained over two million acres of wetlands. These pothole wetlands, left by the retreating glaciers, were drained for agriculture when early settlers learned that the soils were highly fertile. Since the late 1800s, nearly 98 percent of Iowa’s wetlands have been drained.

In 1987, the trend of wetland losses finally began a slow reversal with the implementation of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) by the U.S. Department of Agricultur e (USDA). Howing was among the first to realize the wetland restoration potential of the CRP program in Iowa. CRP paid landowners to remove highly erodible land from production for ten years. Provisions within the CRP regulations also allowed landowners to remove certain wetlands from production for the same period. Howing contacted numerous local landowners, convinced them of the benefits of wetlands restoration, and restored the first basins using Iowa DNR equipment and funds from his operating budget.

Also in 1987, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) began its Partners for Wildlife program, which provides limited cost sharing and technical assistance to landowners interested in restoring their wetlands. Howing’s success with wetland restorations helped set the stage for a partnership between the FWS and the USDA. Since the original restoration in 1987, this cooperative venture has restored 622 wetlands covering 2,691 acres in Iowa. Howing’s foresight, initiative, and dedication not only proved that high quality wetlands can be restored in Iowa but helped spark a program that continues to gain public support.

Those early private land restorations were only the beginning of Howing’s contributions to wetland restoration and conservation. The implementation of the North American Wa terfowl Management Plan in 1988 again brought Iowa DNR and the FWS together to address wetlands loss in the state. Under that partnership, Howing has worked with the FWS Small Wetland Acquisition Program to purchase outright and to acquire perpetual easements on wetlands areas. In Palo Alto and Emmet counties, he has negotiated the purchase and restoration of 1,589 acres as waterfowl production areas.

In 1991, the FWS introduced the Wetlands Easement Pro gram in Iowa. This program has been used in Minnesota and the Dakotas since the 1960s as a means of protecting wetlands from drainage. Because nearly all of Iowa’s wetlands were already drained, the program had to include restoration as well as protection.

Once again, Howing took the initiative to find landowners to participate in the program. Again, his unending belief in wetland values and his knack for sharing that information with landowners has resulted in 14 landowners placing 289 acres under permanent easements. In the summer of 1993, Howing negotiated the single largest easement complex in Iowa: a mix of wetland types totaling 82 acres, owned by three landowners. The combination of negotiation and technical skills needed to accomplish such a large, mixed ownership restoration is a rare talent.

Those who know Ron Howing often remark on his single-mindedness and ability to focus on an issue. It is indeed a strong part of his charac ter, and his friends and co-workers frequently smile at the difficulty encountered when trying to talk about something other than wetlands! Yet in the years to come, it is clear that the lasting smiles brought about by Ron Howing will be those on the faces of Iowans who are happy to see wetlands returned to their state.

— Barry Christenson, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Volunteer Leadership

In Canaan Valley, against the backdrop of West Virginia’s largest wetlands complex, Karen Bonner, winner in the Volunteer Leadership category, volunteers her time and energies to protect the Valley’s ecological integrity. Over 3,000 feet above sea level, in the Appalachians, the 55-square mile watershed of Canaan Valley encompasses 6,700 acres of diverse and fragile wetlands — 9 percent of the state’s total acreage of vegetated wetlands. The 23 botanically distinct wetlands types and 40, distinct plant communities are unique relic boreal habitats. In 1974, these characteristics led Congress to designate the northern half of the Valley a National Natural Landmark.

In order to address and resolve potential conflict between economic growth and the important ecosystem, the Tucker County Planning Commission studies and advises t he County Commission land use decisions. Karen Bonner has been involved on the commission since 1984 and has served as the chair since 1990. In 1989, she was one of the principal forces behind the initiative to develop the county’s Comprehensive Plan, which includes recommendations for innovative ways to protect the northern half of the Valley from over-development while not overtaxing other residents. As co-chair of the zoning committee, she was a principal architect of the original Canaan Valley Zoning Ordinance, which recognizes the importance of the wetlands complex and surrounding natural resources in the Valley.

In a climate where outside interference is shunned, Bonner was instrumental in forming the Canaan Valley Task Force, a partnership between several levels of government and the local community, formed in 1990. The task force is working to define and implement strategies to protect the Valley’s unique ecosystem and balance the needs of the local community. The task force is composed of representatives from state and federal agencies, local government, business and development interests, conservation and recreational interest groups, landowner groups, and Valley residents.

Bonner’s leadership on the task force has been instrumental in creating an open dialogue that has led to a number of resource protection initiatives. These initiatives involve habitat conservation, sustainable growth, real estate development, and outdoor recreation, including off-road vehicle use. On a related effort, Bonner led county efforts to investigate the opportunities, benefits, and economic impacts associated with creation of a national wildlife refuge in Canaan Valley. As president of the planning commission, she ran public meetings on the refuge proposal, many of which were very contentious and involved neighbors, friends, and coworkers. She also worked to examine over 35 existing national wildlife refuges to gain insight into local perceptions of refuge impacts and economic benefits.

Bonner’s research and active participation in numerous public meetings led the planning commission to support the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge. Bonner subsequently met with West Virginia’s delegation in the U.S. Congress to express that support. Her efforts demonstrated great resolve in the face of deep-rooted anti-government sentiment and widespread apprehension that the refuge would stymie economic growth. Subsequently, Congress approved the refuge and included initial appropriations in the 1994 federal budget.

In addition, Bonner chairs the task force subcommittee that is developing a basin-wide plan to address wastewater treatment, part of which includes the use of constructed wetlands. Her efforts led to the award of an EPA grant that is being used to develop specific plans for these constructed wetlands. Bonner is also one of the founders of the Canaan Valley Landowners Association and remains active in that organization as its treasurer. She chaired the Tucker County Blue Ribbon Committee that developed long-term plans for secondary and elementary education, and she was a member of the Tucker County Development Authority.

— John Forren, U.S. EPA Region 3

Land Stewardship and Development

Dr. Thomas Dick is an award winner in the Land Stewardship and Development category, both for his dedication to the restoration of wetlands on his property and for his role i n making the wetlands restoration program in Pennsylvania one of the most successful in the nation.

In 1987, Dr. Dick purchased a run-down 170-acre farm in south central Pennsylvania for the sole purpose of restoring, managing, and creating wildlife habitat. Prior to his purchase, much of the farmland had been drained by a system of open ditches and tile lines, and a small stream had been relocated. Dr. Dick envisioned returning it to a diverse system of marshes, wet meadows, shrub and forested wetlands, and some upland areas. In the fall of 1990, Dr. Dick contacted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) Pennsylvania Field Office to inquire about a new wetlands restoration program entitled Partners for Wildlife. Partners is a FWS program that offers technical assistance and cost-sharing to private landowners interested in restoring wetlands on their property. As a result, in the summer of 1991, two dikes were constructed on the property, restoring about 20 acres of wetlands.

By early 1992, Dr. Dick began to see the benefits of his investment. In February, 17 species of migratory waterfowl, including tundra swans, pintails, green and white winged teals, and hooded and red breasted mergansers, found the newly restored wetlands. In March, hundreds of shorebirds stopped in the marshes during migration. In fact, the local Audubon Society recorded and documented a 56 percent increase in species after the restoration. Of the 20 species listed by the FWS as nongame birds of management concern in the Northeast, 11 were seen on the property and four used the area for nesting after this phase of the restoration.

Dr. Dick, his friends, neighbors, and volunteers from various organizations planted between 25,000 and 35,000 trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants on the property in 1992. Also, three additional dikes were constructed along with several small potholes restoring an additional 60 acres of wetlands on the property. Dr. Dick’s run-down farm now supports a system of 80 acres of wetlands and 90 acres of upland habitat. During the second year after the start of restoration, the Audubon Society reported a 100 percent increase in birds from the pre-restoration level. Over 1,000 people visit Dr. Dick’s wetlands each year. They include school classes, conservation clubs, government agencies, and individuals.

Dr. Dick has encouraged these groups to use the wetlands for educational and research purposes. The University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown uses the wetlands as an outdoor classroom and has several ongoing research efforts aimed at documenting the recolonization of the area by invertebrates. While the habitat that Dr. Dick has restored on his property is significant, his greatest contribution to wetland resources is his enthusiastic promotion of wetlands restoration. Dr. Dick’s infectious enthusiasm has sparked a wave of wetland restoration projects by nearby property owners. His efforts have also resulted in dozens of newspaper and magazine articles and numerous television reports. Dr. Dick now devotes most of his free time to the conservation of wetlands and wildlife resources and encourages others to do so as well.

In addition to his wetlands activities, Dr. Dick is a past president of the American Littoral Society, where he founded the Coral Reef Conservation Society dedicated to the protection of coral reefs in the United States. He is a trustee of theNortheast Marine Environment Institute, founder of the Allegheny Plateau Chapter of the NationalAudubon Society, and a board member of the Chincoteague Natural History Association, whichis a supporting organization of the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. Dr. Dick is also anAdjunct Associate Professor of Natural History at the University of Pittsburgh and still finds time topractice veterinary medicine.

— Charles Kulp, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Land Stewardship and Development

Bill McHenry, award winner in the Land Stewardship and Development category, came to the Sacramento Job Corps in 1981. He was hired by the International Union of Operating Engineers to develop a heavy equipment program that would serve as a precursor to the union’s apprenticeship program. The heavy equipment program is a year-long program offering approximately 40 economically disadvantaged young people training and experience working in construction. Participants are between the ages of 18 and 24 and must have a high school diploma or equivalent.

The heavy equipment program has been successful beyond expectations. McHenry’s exceptional abilities to operate heavy equipment and communicate his knowledge to others make him a popular and extremely effective instructor. Moreover, the ongoing relationship between the Job Corps and the union’s apprenticeship program has resulted in an outstanding job placement rate for program participants.

In 1990, the heavy equipment program took a step in a new direction when McHenry coordinated a project with the U.S. Forest Service at Bottle Hill. This project, the program’s first environmentally oriented undertaking, constructed one mile of road on the Georgetown Ranger District. A crew of students were able to experience true hands-on training at that time. McHenry and John Taylor of the U.S. Forest Service began to see the potential for cooperation between their programs. A number of successful jobs with the Forest Service have followed.

In 1991, Job Corps was approached by the National Audubon Society about a wetlands restoration program. Audubon had leased 550 acres of farm land from the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District for a wetland, riparian, and grassland restoration project in the Sacramento Valley. Known as the Upper Beach Lake Wetlands Restoration Project, the area is part of a 2,000-acre buffer surrounding the Sacramento Sanitation Department’s sewage treatment plant. The restoration project is adjacent to the Stonelakes National Wildlife Refuge, an urban refuge running 13 miles along Interstate five, south of Sacramento. The restoration project and refuge combine to form an 18-mile wildlife buffer along the Consumnis River.

Audubon had encountered a number of delays and setbacks in its attempts to acquire permits for the restoration, and a partnership with a federal agency such as Job Corps appeared to be the answer. McHenry, who was already experienced coordinating Job Corps student training with the Forest Service, was a natural to coordinate this—a project right in his own backyard.

As the project manager, McHenry has coordinated operating engineers and Job Corps students for the past two summers. The project has already restored almost 165 acres. The heavy equipment program is recreating natural meandering lines, renesting plants for waterfowl, and planting 7,000 native trees on a drip irrigation system. In addition, the program will help build boardwalks and trails so the area can be used for environmental education.

The project is scheduled to be completed by fall 1994. It will serve as a critical wildlife habitat, a wintering habitat for thousands of birds, migratory habitat for shorebirds, and a rookery for great blue heron. The project has also exposed Job Corps participants to the values and functions of wetlands. By participating in the project, the students have learned about the bird and animal species that inhabit the area.

McHenry says that one of the most challenging aspects about putting this sort of partnership together is getting the people involved to put their own egos and agendas aside long enough to realize the positive benefits and common goals for all parties. McHenry has a genius for these kinds of challenges and the energetic talent to put it all together.

— Linda Boice, Sacramento Job Corps

Education and Outreach

Deborah Buehler, an award winner in the Education and Outreach category, works as an Education Specialist for school programs at the Indianapolis Zoo. The state’s largest Zoological Park had a 1993 attendance of nearly 900,000 visitors, 116,000 of which were school children. Buehler’s responsibilities include management of teacher in-service programs and student designed workshops — a total of 348 education programs in 1993. Over the last several years, wetlands have become an important theme in the education activities at the zoo, due in large part to Buehler’s enthusiasm.

Buehler has had great success as co-director of the Integrated Environmental Curriculum (IEC) Project. In 1992, she began a joint project with the Indiana Sierra Club Wetlands Project and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to develop a scientifically accurate and academically rigorous environmental curriculum, known as the IEC, for elementary and middle school students. Phase I of the IEC emphasizes the biological richness and diversity inherent in wetlands as a theme to instruct children in science, math, social studies, art, music, and physical education.

This project has been designed to capture the diversity of students, as well as the diversity of wetlands. As co-director of the project, Buehler involved teachers from the Ft. Wayne Community School Corporation as authors of the written curriculum materials. These teachers represented diverse educational experiences, from inner-city to rural schools. Recognizing the diversity of learning styles, the IEC provides wetland-based experiences ranging from the scientific analysis of wetland seed banks, to wetlands as a subject for painting and sculpture. Buehler has incorporated her experience as an educator to initiate the development of interactive computer software, wetland fact cards, and videos as part of the IEC materials.

Buehler’s belief that curriculum development is only the beginning of an educational effort, has made this program successful. In order to reach teachers not currently using environmental curriculum, Buehler has applied her training experience to developing a workshop for teachers using the curriculum. The workshops, which involve both field work and classroom instruction, serve to familiarize teachers with the basic techniques for environmental education.

Buehler has also worked with the administration of the zoo to develop a strong institutional commitment to wetlands. In 1989, the zoo received an Indiana Department of Natural Resources small grant which enabled the development of an exhibit entitled “Indiana’s Vanishing Wetlands.” Buehler managed the development, design, and content of the exhibition. Buehler has also developed a special flyer entitled “Indiana Wetlands,” for the zoo’s Conservation Alert program. The program features endangered plants, animals, or habitats—informing zoo visitors through a brief article, suggested reading lists, and guest speaker lectures. This same article was a feature in the “Edzoocator” the zoo’s teacher mailer sent to 15,000 Indiana teachers that year.

Buehler also coordinates the zoo’s annual Science for Conservation program, which has focused on a variety of wetlands issues. With the help of biologists from the FWS, the program has exposed thousands of students and hundreds of teachers to wetlands in Indiana. Buehler also worked closely with the FWS to develop classroom materials focused on wetlands.

Finally, Buehler continues to incorporate the zoo’s new “Toads, Frogs, and Polliwogs” permanent exhibit into her wetlands education efforts. The exhibit provides zoo visitors with a global perspective on amphibians and related issues. Buehler uses this unusual perspective on wetland issues to expand the public’s understanding of these ecosystems. In addition, Buehler currently works on new ways to educate the people of Indiana and the Midwest on matters concerning wildlife and their habitats.

— Forest Clark, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Science Research

Keel Kemper is an award winner in the Science Research category for his contributions to wetland conservation in Maine. Kemper is an assistant regional wildlife biologist for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, assigned to resolve nuisance beaver problems.

Beaver dams impound water and permit the animals to travel on water highways to forested areas where trees and shrubs are harvested for food, darns, and lodges. However, as roads bisect wetlands and beaver populations continue to expand, more and more dams are built in road culverts, flooding public roads.

To avoid flooding, state and local highway departments destroyed dams and drained the associated wetlands. However, beavers frequently repaired the dams within 24-hours, recreating the problem, and necessitating the destruction of additional dams. Widely fluctuating water levels in beaver impoundments can be devastating to ground nesting birds and other wildlife that require relatively stable water levels, particularly during the nesting season. Continual destruction of beaver dams is both a burden to highway department budgets and a poor management practice.

To resolve this conflict, Kemper perfected an innovative water control device, called a beaver exclosure. By using a combination of drain pipes, one-inch welded wire, and metal stakes, Kemper constructs portable, easily maintained fence structures in front of road culverts. To stabilize water levels, Kemper inserts perforated drain pipes through the dam and the fence, making it unnecessary to drain the wetlands. Beavers rebuild their dams against the fence, instead of in culverts, thus preserving acres of palustrine emergent, scrub-shrub, and forested wetlands. Since 1992, beaver exclosures have been installed at 82 culverts in Maine, protecting 968 acres of wetlands. This has been a win-win situation for all parties. Towns are happy that roads are not flooded, landowners are happy that their wetlands are not drained, and the many wetland-dependent species continue to benefit from beaver dams.

One notable example of Kemper’s efforts is visible in Monmouth, Maine, where the installation of $150 worth of enclosure hardware prevented flooding and saved a 300-acre marsh. The marsh is home to 18 pairs of wood ducks, six pairs of black ducks, other waterfowl, bitterns, ospreys, harriers, rails, green-backed herons, otter, mink, muskrats, dragonflies, and many other vertebrates and invertebrates. The town of Monmouth, which routinely destroyed beaver darns, now has its highway crews install the demonstrations statewide, Kemper has shown towns like Monmouth that the installation of exclosures is more cost effective than weekly trips to unplug culverts.

Acting on the work of Kemper, partnerships have been formed between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, municipalities, paper companies, railroad companies, and private landowners. As a result, the techniques of this highly successful program are being applied by timber companies, railroad companies, and other private landowners.

Kemper’s commitment to wetland conservation has improved attitudes towards wetlands in Maine. Kemper’s work has been portrayed in the media as a conflict resolution technique, and as a result, it is the private landowner who is quoted in local papers about wetland conservation. Landowners discussing why wetlands should not be drained are more convincing than public employees with the same message.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife are co-producing a 30-minute documentary on the values of beaver-created wetlands. The video includes a step by step guide to installing beaver exclosures. The program, featuring Kemper, will be aired on Maine Public Television. The video is also being distributed to other states wrestling with conflicts between humans and beaver-created wetlands.

— Ron Joseph, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

 

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