National Aquarium in Baltimore, Aquarium Conservation Team (Baltimore, Md.) — The National Aquarium in Baltimore, in partnership with the National Park Service, the Maryland Port Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey and NOAA, has taken a leadership role in restoring a created ten-acre tidal wetland bordering Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine located in Baltimore, Md. Tidal wetlands are essential to the health of the Chesapeake Bay. They prevent erosion, improve water quality and provide habitat for many species of birds, fish and invertebrates.

Patrick M. Burchfield (Brownsville, Texas) — The Kemp’s ridley turtle was nearly extinct by the 1980s due to exploitation of eggs and incidental capture in commercial fishing gear. The species' only nesting beaches are in the western Gulf of Mexico. Burchfield has led the U.S./Mexico Bi-national coalition to recover the Kemp’s since 1981. He has coordinated the multiple U.S./Mexico operational permits, logistics, hiring, research and conservation efforts for five turtle camps in Mexico with more than 100 personnel. He also has coordinated the efforts of the U.S. shrimping industry to build and maintain the camps’ infrastructure. As a result, the Kemp’s ridley population is experiencing an exponential increase in numbers. (Photo)

Billy Frank Jr. (Olympia, Wash.) — Almost single-handedly, Frank raised the entire Pacific Northwest region’s awareness of the importance of healthy ecosystems for viable salmon populations. He is an advocate of protecting salmon through watershed management and restoration.

Paul Toth (Seminole, Fla.) — Contributed to saving life and property in Florida during Hurricanes Charley and Frances as amateur radio net control operators for the NOAA National Weather Service Tampa Bay Area. The three amateur radio operators serving the NOAA National Weather Service in Ruskin, Fla., volunteered a total of 125 hours during Hurricanes Charley and Frances to enhance NWS operations. They gave up time with their families to gather real-time reports during the hurricanes to enhance NWS warnings and also provided up-to-the-minute weather information for recovery operations in west central and southwest Florida.

Robert M. Stanhope (Valrico, Fla.) and Sean C. Fleeman (New Port Richey, Fla.) — Contributed to saving life and property in Florida during Hurricanes Charley and Frances as amateur radio net control operators for the NOAA National Weather Service Tampa Bay Area. The three amateur radio operators serving the National Weather Service in Ruskin, Fla., volunteered a total of 125 hours during Hurricanes Charley and Frances to enhance NWS operations. They gave up time with their families to gather real-time reports during the hurricanes to enhance NWS warnings and also provided up-to-the-minute weather information for recovery operations in west central and southwest Florida.

Dean Martinelli and Cam Parry (Windsor, Calif.) — Parry and Martinelli donated hundreds of hours to educate and excite the local community of Forestville about salmon and steelhead and restore salmonid habitat in Green Valley Creek by planting riparian vegetation, restoring in-stream rearing habitat for salmon and steelhead, and involving local high school students, landowners and community members in the restoration project.

Chad Pregracke (East Moline, Ill.) — From what started as a one-man project to clear trash from the rivers near his home, Pregracke launched an organization and inspired thousands of volunteers to join him in cleaning up and preserving the natural environment of the nation’s major rivers. Pregracke is an example of the “power of one.” His effort to clean up the Mississippi River near his home caught local attention and has expanded to community-wide projects to clean up waterways across the nation.

Charles T. Byars and the Wichita County Amateur Radio Emergency Services (Wichita Falls, Texas) — For more 30 years, Byars and the Wichita County Amateur Radio Emergency Services volunteered their time, expertise and resources to help the NOAA National Weather Service detect and track dangerous storms in north Texas. Their tireless efforts, long hours and dedication to helping to protect the citizens of Wichita Falls and the surrounding area have led to more accurate and detailed weather information being disseminated, more timely warnings and quite possibly lives being saved.

Darin Zarbnisky (Boise, Idaho) — Development of outstanding student/volunteer-driven habitat restoration program integrated with his classes. Zarbnisky's leadership skills are exemplary. He instills a quality work ethic in his students by example. He works alongside his students, motivating them to work just as hard as he does. He works on projects with his students, teaching them the value of volunteerism.

Grant W. Goodge (Asheville, N.C.) — Goodge became a NOAA National Weather Service Cooperative weather observer in 1961 maintaining records for five different sites—two in Knoxville, Tenn., and three in Asheville, N.C. For 19 years (1979 – 1997) he personally kept two stations running simultaneously, one in downtown Asheville, N.C., and the other in Swannanoa, N.C. Goodge traveled to both stations everyday to record the weather data, never missing a day in 19 years. In addition to collecting these data, he provided 21 years of daily Touch-Tone transmission and voice calls to the NWS offices in Raleigh/Durham and Greenville/Spartanburg.

Gus Martinez (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) (posthumous) — Gus Martinez's love of sharks, and his family’s desire to honor his life, resulted in the donation of Gus the Shark to Underwater Adventures at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. Gus’ family hopes that kids will hear his story and be inspired to seek knowledge about ocean life. In promoting Gus the Shark, the aim also is to raise awareness of chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) and the need for research funds. Gus passed away December 28, 2003, from CGD.

Linda Feix and Howard Eugene Wright (Huron, Ohio) — Feix and Wright have together provided 48 years of dedicated and distinguished service to the NOAA Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve, its watershed and national efforts to promote research, education and stewardship of estuaries.

James Kirkley (Gloucester Point, Va.) — Kirkley's contributions include developing the shrimp business options paper, excess and overcapacity theory and applications to U.S. and international fisheries, developing fishery sectors for input-output modeling needed for Regulatory Flexibility Act analyses, bioeconomic fishery models, reducing sea turtle mortality, community impact assessments, extensive work with the mid-Atlantic scallop fishery, recreational fisheries and allocation of fishery resources, several contributions to the NOAA Fisheries Service on the management of striped bass and the oyster industry of Chesapeake Bay.

Michael McHenry (Port Angeles, Wash.) — McHenry has restored 42 miles of stream in seven watersheds across the Olympic Peninsula over the last 12 years. McHenry has received more than $4 million in funding from 12 different local, state, federal and private organizations to conduct this work. He has utilized nine different types of watershed restoration techniques to achieve this goal. He has achieved this goal by bringing both money and job opportunities into a rural and tribal community. The jobs he has created are predominantly for displaced fisherman and timber workers.

Michael O'Reilly (Dartmouth, Mass.) — O’Reilly has led or participated in many successes to protect and restore coastal resources of the town of Dartmouth, Mass. His salt marsh restoration and fish passage enhancement efforts, in particular, have significantly improved the NOAA trust resources of the area. He has been a solid leader in planning, designing and implementing restoration projects, which includes the Padanaram marsh restoration funded through the New Bedford Harbor Trustee Council responsible for overseeing and allocating injury restoration funds.

Mike Jani (Calpella, Calif.) — Under Jani’s leadership, Mendocino Redwood Company has demonstrated an environmental ethic, which is significantly better than other timber companies. Cooperation and collaboration have been the company’s philosophy. MRC has donated company materials, labor and equipment to restore high priority habitat essential to the recovery of listed salmonids. All of MRC’s restoration work has been voluntary, and has been carried out in the spirit of repairing and reforesting land that was mismanaged by the previous ownership. MRC has implemented a salmonid monitoring program to determine their population status in particular watersheds and gauge the success of their restoration projects.

Paul "Pete" McLain (Toms River, N.J.) — For more than 50 years, McLain has been involved in promoting stewardship and public awareness of Barnegat Bay. He was instrumental in acquiring the Great Bay Blvd. Wildlife Management Area, the home of the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve’s Coastal Education Center and the Rutgers University Marine Field Station. This 18,000-acre tidal wetland acquisition was the first time that private donations were used for matching federal aid money.

Peter de Jung (San Rafael, Calif.) — Since 1995 de Jung has volunteered with the NOAA Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary’s Beach Watch program, conducting monthly monitoring on Limanour Beach. In October 2004, he was attacked by a white shark while surfing near his monitoring site. A self-proclaimed charter member of the White Shark’s “Surfer-Catch-and-Release Club,” de Jung not only resumed his beach surveys upon recovery but now volunteers with the sanctuary’s new Shark Mobile outreach program to recount his experience and insights to young people.

Richard Littleton (Seattle, Wash.) — Littleton has selflessly donated his time, with more than 100 hours in 2004. Often responding within a moment’s notice, he's made the four-hour drive from Seattle to Port Angeles for one to five consecutive days to assist with fieldwork off the NOAA Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary R/V Tatoosh. While on board, Littleton is in the bow with his camera at the ready to capture breaching whales, porpoise and seabirds. His photographs have enhanced the sanctuary’s photo library of field action shots and wildlife.

Robert "Stubby" Knowles (Gloucester, Mass.) (posthumous) — Knowles, known by all as “Stubby”, passed away on November 17, 2004, at the age of 71. Stubby was the shellfish constable for the City of Gloucester for more 30 years and was well known as a “clam’s best friend.” He also was the best friend to anadromous alewives, American eels, sea birds and all other animals and their habitats of the near-shore environment of Gloucester. Stubby undertook the leadership and implementation role, which reduced pollution that resulted in the opening to harvest of dozens of acres of shellfish beds and actively promoting habitat restoration of coastal resources with local, state, federal and non-profit organizations.

William D. Ruckelshaus (Seattle, Wash.) — Ruckelshaus has a lifetime commitment to and passion for environmental protection. Following his service to government and industry, and with no prospect of personal gain, he convinced federal, state, tribal and business leaders in the Puget Sound region to respond to a 1990s Pacific salmon crisis by coming together in a collaborative region-wide effort to restore the imperiled resource. His leadership and personal commitment to that effort have earned him praise from all quarters.

William Reay (Gloucester Point, Va.) — Reay is a local and national leader in the effort to improve water quality, weather and habitat monitoring in estuarine environments. In the Chesapeake Bay, his work has contributed to establishing better shallow water quality criteria for the Chesapeake Bay Program and the state of Virginia, and documenting the impacts of Hurricane Isabel on estuarine water quality. As a leader within the NOAA National Estuarine Research Reserve System, Reay has continually encouraged and exemplified excellence in the System Wide Monitoring Program; ensuring that reserves around the country produce high quality data and exploring technology to expand the scope and parameters of monitoring data.

Bethany Lovette (Slidell, La.) — Since last summer, Lovette has been an instrumental student volunteer with the NOAA National Weather Service forecast office in New Orleans/Baton Rouge. As a significant resource, she has unselfishly given her energy and attention to challenging station projects. She has researched and assisted in generating information concerning limited NOAA Weather Radio coverage for the extreme southern portion of southeast Louisiana. Expanding national NOAA Weather Radio coverage will offset weather adversities and vulnerabilities for area residents over this area. Her efforts exceed the normal workings of volunteers and are comparable to model and exceptional federal employees.

Carol Keiper (Benicia, Calif.) — Keiper has been an invaluable member of the NOAA Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary team for the past three years and has worked tirelessly as a volunteer for the sanctuary in many capacities. She has served as the chair for the NOAA Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council from its inception in 2002, bringing her expertise as a marine biologist to the council by holding the research seat. She has also participated in numerous working groups to help define the management plan for the sanctuary. She is an enthusiastic educator, helping to promote new programs for sanctuary, a talented public speaker, and inveterate field biologist donating her time to science and research projects at the Sanctuary.

Janet Lamont (Port Angeles, Wash.) — Lamont has shown an enthusiasm that has been contagious among the volunteer staff at the NOAA Olympic Coast Discovery Center and has been integral in establishing and growing the sanctuary’s volunteer program. In her work, Lamont has demonstrated her knowledge of and dedication to the goals of the sanctuary. Lamont, a former schoolteacher and librarian who has a love for SCUBA and nature photography, has proven a natural talent at educating the public about a healthy marine environment.

Judith Stillion (Alpena, Mich.) — In 2004, Stillion negotiated an agreement with the NOAA Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary to house and manage the Thunder Bay Research Collection, with some 65,000 photographs, 56 linear feet of vertical files, 40 feet of periodicals and ephemera and more than 1,000 published works related to the Great Lakes ships and shipwrecks. Housing the collection there will allow NOAA sanctuary personnel, Great Lakes historians and library patrons easy access. Stillion has led several initiatives to strengthen the collection and maximize its accessibility, including grant requests for development and digitization.

Leslie Chapman-Henderson (Tallahassee, Fla.) — "Turn Around Don't Drown" began as a grassroots effort in Texas. Due to the leadership by the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, or FLASH, in both financial and human resources, the simple message has spread throughout many sections of the United States. Over the past 30 years, an average of 107 individuals die each year because they drive or walk into flood waters. A large percentage of these (some estimate more than 80 percent) fatalities are preventable. Under Chapman-Henderson’s leadership, FLASH, Inc. has become one of the fastest growing disaster safety organizations in the country and a national leader in consumer awareness and education of disaster-resistant construction and mitigation.

Maria Falcon (Hato Rey, Puerto Rico) — Since 2001, Falcon has been promoting the conservation of Puerto Rico’s coastal and marine resources through GeoAmbiente, a nature and environment weekly show filmed on location where scientists, government officials and communities can discuss environmental issues and propose solutions.

Mary Cook (Batesville, Ark.) and Diane Stanitski (Shippensburg, Pa.) — Mary and Diane were onboard the NOAA ship RONALD H BROWN to work on research related to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Stratus Mooring. They used their free time to create and write a children’s book. The book is written at the middle school level; it has science and math activities, a glossary of terms and was illustrated by the ship’s Chief Boatswain, Bruce Cowden.

Ronnie M. Pierce (Hoopa, Calif.) (posthumous) — As a tireless leader for tribal rights issues, Pierce worked closely with the Karuk and Yurok tribes, the Inter-Tribal Fish and Water Commission, Northern California Indian Development Council and such federal agencies as the Bureau of Indian Affairs and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the NOAA Fisheries Service. The last years of her career were spent towards dam removal within the Basin and retaining essentially needed water for the Klamath River ecosystem.

Tennessee Valley Authority (Knoxville, Tenn.) — The River Scheduling (RvS) staff of the Tennessee Valley Authority implemented new operational procedures to provide the NOAA National Weather Service with time-sensitive flood forecast information. Using these procedures, the staff is sharing expanded information on flood conditions with the NOAA National Weather Service. This information is critical to the NWS mission of issuing flood warnings to protect lives and property and to support the economic well-being of the nation. This information is invaluable in disseminating NWS flood warning information to the citizens of the Tennessee Valley.