WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today presented the Partners in Conservation Awards “honoring those who achieve natural resource goals in collaboration and partnership with others” to 26 groups and individuals at a ceremony at Interior headquarters in Washington, D.C. “These awards recognize the dedicated efforts of 600 individuals and organizations from all walks of life, from across our nation– and from across our borders with Canada and Mexico,” Salazar noted. “They celebrate partnerships that conserve and restore our nation’s treasured landscapes and watersheds, partnerships that engage Native American communities, and partnerships that engage youth.”
The Secretary’s Partners in Conservation Awards recognize conservation achievements resulting from the cooperation and participation of individual landowners; citizens’ groups; private sector and nongovernmental organizations; and federal, state, local, and/or tribal governments. “The Partners in Conservation Awards demonstrate that our greatest conservation legacies often emerge when stakeholders, agencies, and citizens from a wide range of backgrounds come together to address shared challenges.” the Secretary said. “The lands, waters, and resources that the Department of the Interior manages belong to all Americans and we all must be partners in their stewardship.”
“Today, we celebrate your accomplishments and ask you to join us in a new era of conservation, an era that I hope will rival those of Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy,” the Secretary told participants.
The projects recognized today range from a U.S. Geological Survey partnership with the Coast Salish Nation of the Pacific Northwest to study water quality as part of a traditional annual canoe journey to a cooperative effort protecting aquifer resources in Oklahoma involving the Bureau of Reclamation, Chickasaw Nation, Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a number of Oklahoma state agencies.
A list of the 26 projects follows. More information on each is available and will be posted at: http://www.doi.gov/news.html#chnews
- Giacomini Wetlands Restoration (California)
- “Making Friends” Guidebook (developed by the National Park Service Midwest Region)
- Potomac River Gorge Partnership (Maryland and Virginia)
- Three Mountain Alliance Watershed Partnership (Hawaii)
- Operation Migration (United States and Canada)
- Rappahannock Land Protection Partnership (Virginia)
- Rat Island Restoration (Alaska)
- Southwest Alaska Salmon Habitat Partnership (Alaska)
- Apache Trout Habitat Restoration (Arizona)
- Casting Light Upon the Waters (Wisconsin)
- Bayhorse Mining District Cooperative Conservation Partnership (Idaho)
- Milford Flat Fire Restoration Project (Utah)
- Weaverville Community Forest (California)
- West Eugene Wetlands Partnership (Oregon)
- Battle of the Atlantic Expedition (North Carolina coast)
- Flower Garden Banks Long-Term Monitoring (Texas and Louisiana coast)
- West Virginia Watershed Network (West Virginia)
- Colorado River Interim Guidelines (multi-state)
- John W. Keys III Partnership Program (Bureau of Reclamation Pacific NW Region)
- Missouri River Bank Stabilization (South Dakota)
- Outdoor Recreation Business Plan Guidebook Team (Utah)
- Protection of Aquifer Resources in Oklahoma (Oklahoma)
- Advanced Invasive Species Modeling Room (Colorado)
- Coast Salish-USGS Tribal Journey/Water Quality Project (Washington)
- Glenn Harkleroad, BLM, Oregon
- Sheldon Sankey, BIA, Oklahoma