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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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2002 National Wetlands Award Recipients

 

Outstanding Program Development

Christy Foote-Smith’s passion for wetlands began with her childhood explorations of the interdunal ponds along the southern shores of Lake Michigan. She went on to work for more than 30 years to protect Massachusetts’ wetlands. Her greatest strength is her ability to galvanize support and engage broad coalitions in direct action. During her six-year tenure as executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions, Ms. Foote-Smith organized the Coalition to Save Sweeden’s Swamp, composed of local and national environmental groups opposing a proposed mall construction in Attleboro, Massachusetts. As a result of intense public pressure, EPA issued a landmark decision vetoing the project and setting legal precedent that strengthened federal wetland protection. As deputy director and then director of the commonwealth’s Wetlands and Waterways Programs for 10 years, she grew aware that regulatory programs cannot address historic wetland destruction. In 1993, she received a start-up grant to initiate a proactive watershed-based wetland restoration program. Under the GROWetlands Initiative (Groups Restoring Our Wetlands), Ms. Foote-Smith successfully raised funds for local projects. She collaborated with other government and business representatives in 1999 to establish the first Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership, which funneled $1 million in donations to Massachusetts restoration projects. Her program, which has supported 27 projects, is well on its way towards its goal of restoring 3,000 acres. Because she has won the support and active involvement of state and federal agencies, non-profit groups, corporate leaders, and local officials, we can all look forward to her program achieving its goal.

— Eric Hutchins, National Marine Fisheries Service, Gloucester, Massachusetts

Outstanding Program Development

Ka’apikapika Angel Pilago is the founder and executive director of the Kohanaiki ’Ohana. Since the organization’s formation in 1990, Mr. Pilago has initiated innovative programs empowering the community to take an active role in land stewardship-connecting Hawaiian cultural to environmental resources. He has led a new generation of Hawaiians to protect traditional practices, natural resources, history, and values.

Mr. Pilago has a long history of community organizing to protect the fragile natural and cultural resources of Hawai’i. He played a key role in a legal victory to maintain traditional fishing and gathering rights in the anchialine ponds and wetlands at Kohanaiki in Kona. This legal victory led to a new state law that not only protects wetlands, but also provides strong tools to ensure environmental justice, human rights, and public use of resources. The new law requires cultural impact statements as part of environmental impact statements. Building on these legal gains, Mr. Pilago is now working to establish the North Western Hawaiian Islands as a national marine sanctuary. In 2000, the Anchialine Pond Restoration Project to protect the aquatic resources at Kohanaiki won national recognition as a Five Star Restoration Site. The project built partnerships between students, landowners, businesses, and government agencies to foster sustainability for this special place. Because of Mr. Pilago’s commitment and dedication, the community is now in a position to negotiate public acquisition of the Kohanaiki lands, ensuring permanent protection of the wetlands.

— J. Curtis Tyler III, Council Member, Hawai’i County Council, Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i

Volunteer Leadership

As a line walker for Lakehead Pipeline Company, Jim Sweeney would often walk the entire pipeline right-of-way between Elgin, Illinois, and Merrillville, Indiana. Most of the right-of-way consisted of farm fields, forests, wetlands, and other open space. During those walks, he developed an interest in the nature around him. As he learned about local population trends of many species of wildlife, his new environmental concerns motivated him to protect what he saw. He joined several national organizations and devoured nature programs on television, and he quickly realized that wetlands were incredibly important and under-appreciated. When he learned the dramatic statistic that 87 percent of Indiana’s wetlands already have been destroyed, a wetland advocate was born.

In 1991, he and an informal coalition of bird watchers, hunters, and other wetland lovers formed Wetland Watch, which reaches out to the community by distributing information, reporting illegal wetland fills, educating students, and making presentations. Mr. Sweeney also leads an effort to restore part of the Grand Kankakee Marsh, once 500,000 acres of marshes, hardwood swamps, oxbow lakes, and meadows. He has led volunteer efforts to promote a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal for a new 30,000-acre Grand Kankakee Marsh National Wildlife Refuge in Indiana and Illinois, and he co-founded the Friends of the Kankakee. Mr. Sweeney is currently president of the Griffith County chapter of the Izaak Walton League and is president of Izaak Walton Conservation Lands, Inc., which acquires valuable wetlands and protects them with permanent conservation easements.

— Stan Adams, Izaak Walton League of America, Four Oaks, North Carolina

Science Research

William Patrick has been a leader in wetland research for more than 50 years, producing seminal work on wetland soil processes. A professor at Louisiana State University since 1953, his research attempts to understand the chemical, physiochemical, and microbiological processes of natural wetland and rice soils. He has authored and co-authored more than 300 contributions on wetland biogeochemistry, many of which have been published in prominent scientific journals. He has been a delegate to national and international conferences on wetland soil biogeochemistry and has served as an advisor and consultant for government agencies and corporations responsible for managing wetlands.

Dr. Patrick established and directed for many years the Louisiana State University Wetland Biogeochemistry Institute, which focuses on environmental and regulatory research aspects of wetland soils and sediments. His major current research interests are the biogeochemistry of greenhouse gases in wetlands, both natural and agricultural, and the biogeochemistry of methylmercury in wetlands. He also is committed to linking his scientific work to environmental challenges. Much of his work has been directed at providing a scientific basis for making intelligent regulatory decisions and providing guidance to federal and state agencies. His research has had a significant impact on climate change policies and on the interpretation and application of Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act provisions. Dr. Patrick has played a crucial role in the development of wetland soil science, and his research has contributed greatly to understanding the value of wetlands.

— Glenn Guntenspergen, Society of Wetland Scientists, Duluth, Minnesota

Land Stewardship and Development

Nature needs a defender in the beat-up U.S./Mexico borderlands. Dry much of the time, the Tijuana River enters the United States as a beleaguered ephemeral stream. Just four miles downstream, where the river meets the Pacific Ocean, a contrasting nature reigns-salt marsh, estuary, and sea-a sublime scene that often belies the ills of the watershed. These wetlands are home to a rich array of once-common southern California species now in peril in a landscape dominated by humans. Jim King knows and loves this troubled place and its wildlife. Despite huge challenges, he is their champion.

Mr. King is a project manager for the California Coastal Conservancy, a state agency devoted to habitat protection and Pacific Ocean access. For nearly 15 years, he has carried forth a bold vision for the rough-and-tumble borderlands. In this region-one of the world's biological hot spots-where as much as 90 percent of coastal wetlands have been destroyed and urban impacts spiral out of control, Mr. King has been instrumental in developing a community-based restoration program with striking results. He has organized assessments and plans, raised scarce dollars, and broken ground on projects that have enhanced or restored more than 220 acres of tidal wetlands. Mr. King has demonstrated that successful restoration requires a multi-faceted approach that includes science, planning, facilitation, fundraising, and organizational capacity building. His endurance and commitment to difficult work in a difficult place inspires people. He shows us clearly what most people have a hard time imagining: our actions now can make a difference for future generations.

— Nina Garfield, Estuarine Reserves Division, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland

Land Stewardship and Development

A horseback ride to visit an old cowboy neighbor in 1942 changed young Clarence Mortenson’s life. The friend told him “Young man, when I came here, I could cross Foster Creek anywhere at a trot with my team and buggy; it was tree-lined and grassy-bottomed, and it had water holes about every mile that never went dry.” But from where they stood, there wasn’t a tree within miles, only barren hills and a big gash in the ground 70 feet wide and 20 feet deep. Initially doubting the old cowboy’s sanity, Mr. Mortenson later studied historical records and discovered that his friend’s story was true.

This ecological vision has directed the management of the Mortenson Ranch since 1950. Through the construction of small sediment-trapping dams on gullied creeks, a rest-rotation grazing system, and deferred summer grazing in riparian areas and woody draws, the ranch now resembles the old cowboy’s story. Cottonwoods, willows, beavers, and dense mats of prairie cordgrass have returned to Foster Creek. Fruit-bearing shrubs now grow thickly with riparian trees in numerous woody draws. Much less soil and water now leave the ranch. Prairie grass and forb production has increased to the point where Mr. Mortenson’s son Jeff has started a native seed and prairie restoration business. Wildlife has returned in impressive numbers; Mr. Mortenson’s son Todd operates a hunting business for upland game birds while also managing the ranch. Nongame birds, including many neotropical migrant species, are abundant as well. Ecological improvements also have benefitted the ranch’s fiscal bottom line-the Mortensons report that their land management practices have increased both profits and sustainability.

— W. Carter Johnson, South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota

Education and Outreach

It has been said that an excellent teacher does not educate the mind at the expense of the heart. Robert Hastings-who embodies that tenet in spirit and in action-has designed programs, administered grants, organized and conducted workshops, led field excursions, promoted partnerships, and developed educational materials to assist educators throughout the Lake Pontchartrain Basin in teaching our students’ minds and hearts. Dr. Hastings teaches best through example, and he serves as a source of personal inspiration to the students, community volunteers, and science educators with whom he works.

During his years in Louisiana, Dr. Hastings effectively used his role as professor of biological sciences at Southeastern Louisiana University and director of the Turtle Cove Environmental Research Station to develop environmentally literate citizens able to make informed personal, professional, and political decisions. He supervised the development of Turtle Cove as a quality education center for teachers. He developed the “Lessons on the Lake” weekend workshops for teachers, offered quarterly since 1991, and served as primary instructor. He encouraged the use of Turtle Cove as a site for school field trips and scientific research.

Dr. Hastings has authored a variety of professional manuscripts, received many grants for scientific research, and served on numerous advisory boards, councils, and committees. Whether working with environmental professionals or with students and teachers, Dr. Hastings provides leadership in the battle for the restoration of the ecological health of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin. We are empowered by his work, and we treasure his rich legacy.

— Sue Ellen Lyons, Holy Cross High School, New Orleans, Louisiana

 

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