National Wetlands Awards Celebrating six champions of the country’s invaluable aquatic ecosystems and wildlife

ELI’s National Wetlands Awards are presented annually to individuals who have excelled in wetlands protection, restoration, and education. The winners are selected by a committee composed of experts from around the country, including representatives from each federal supporting agency, the conservation and business communities, and others.

This year’s ceremony was held on May 16 at the rooftop of Beveridge & Diamond, PC, in Washington, D.C. Individuals from the Environmental Protection Agency, Fish and Wildlife Service, Baker Botts, Hogan Lovells, and ELI presented awards. One winner, Adam Davis, attended virtually.

Opening remarks were delivered by ELI President Jordan Diamond. Former ELI President John Cruden made remarks in memory of his former colleague the late Stephen Samuels, a retired Justice Department attorney and one of the government’s leading experts on the Clean Water Act and its wetlands program.

A recording of the ceremony, podcast interviews with the 2023 winners, and additional details are available here.

Award for Business Leadership. Adam Davis is a co-founder and managing partner at Ecosystem Investment Partners, which has restored over 48,000 acres of wetlands and 220 miles of streams since its founding in 2006. Adam is involved in all aspects of the business, from investor relations to project implementation to government affairs.

Adam has dedicated his career to aligning business interests with environmental outcomes, and he is an advocate for new types of public-private partnerships that support ecological restoration. For example, he led the effort for his firm to partner with the California Department of Water Resources on the largest tidal wetland restoration project in state history.

Adam and his wife, Sara, live in San Rafael, California. He has served on the board of the national industry trade association, the Ecological Restoration Business Association, and helped to create the California affiliate, CalERBA. Adam has a B.A. in Africana Studies from Cornell University.

Award for Promoting Awareness. Matt Hough is the manager of conservation programs for Kansas, at Ducks Unlimited, a position he accepted in 2017 after joining the organization six years earlier as a regional biologist.

In his current role, Matt heads DU’s conservation program for the state, supervising wildlife biology staff and overseeing the organization’s state budget and fundraising. Matt works with various partners in Kansas to deliver a diverse program of restoration, enhancement, protection, and acquisition projects. He has also been active in DU’s growing Ecosystem Services working group, especially focused on wetlands and their role in groundwater recharge and water efficiency.

Matt serves on the boards of both the Playa Lake Joint Venture and Kansas Alliance for Wetlands and Streams. Raised on a small beef cattle ranch in eastern Oklahoma, Matt graduated from Oklahoma State University with a bachelor’s in plant and soil science and a minor in range management. He received his master’s in wetland ecology, also at OSU. Matt and his partner live in Grand Island, Nebraska, with their new Pudelpointer puppy, Penny, and cat, Mia, where they enjoy entertaining friends, cooking, and fun in the outdoors.

Award for Program Development. Rebecca Swadek is the director of wetlands management at the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. In this role, she provides strategic management and leadership for an interdisciplinary team focused on protecting and restoring over 60 miles of streams and 3,000 acres of tidal and freshwater wetlands on NYC’s parkland. She has taken a lead role in advising on the city’s first wetland mitigation bank—consulting on hundreds of projects impacting wetland resources, developing a public wetlands map for the city, and contributing to the restoration and protection of over 85 acres of wetlands.

Rebecca has co-authored eight agency reports related to wetland, watershed, and stream management and served as the lead author for the “Wetlands Management Framework for New York City," released in 2021 with the Natural Areas Conservancy. The framework serves as a 30-year roadmap for the protection, management, and restoration of New York City’s remaining wetlands.

Rebecca serves as a co-chair for the Ecology Team for the Bronx River Alliance and as a research associate for the Botanical Research Institute of Texas. Trained as a plant ecologist, Rebecca has over 15 years of experience in plant conservation, ecological restoration, and stormwater management in California, New York, and Texas.

Award for Local Stewardship. Scott Fisher serves as Director of ʻĀina (Land) Stewardship for the Hawaiʻi Land Trust (HILT), which encompasses 19,500 acres of protected land in Maui, Oʻahu, Kauaʻi and Hawaiʻi Island. He joined HILT in 2003 as project manager for the 277-acre Waihe’s Coastal Dunes and Wetlands Refuge. Since 2019, Scott has also worked as a consultant with the Mikajy (Restoration) project in Menabe Province, Madagascar.

Raised in Kula, Maui, Scott enlisted in the Marine Corps when he was 17 and served in the Gulf War. Scott’s first Ph.D. explored the dynamics of post-conflict recovery related to natural resource degradation among Pacific Island communities on the island of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea. From 2017-20 Scott was a visiting fellow at the University of Leicester, conducting research into the relationship between ecological restoration, ecosystem resilience, and paleoecology. Scott also holds graduate certificates in ecological restoration and sustainable agriculture.

Scott is currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program in earth and ocean science at the University of Southampton (UK), where he is studying how to optimize nature-based solutions to high-energy marine inundation events. On weekends, Scott enjoys working at his 4-acre ulu (breadfruit) farm on Maui.

Award for Scientific Research. Bingqing Liu is a research scientist and deputy director of the RESTORE Act Center of Excellence for Louisiana (LA-COE) at The Water Institute. Her cutting-edge and forward-thinking scientific research focuses on coastal wetland carbon modeling and remote sensing monitoring to examine the responses of coastal blue carbon habitats (e.g., black mangroves and marshes) to meteorological and climatic changes and restoration activities in Louisiana.

Over the past five years, she has worked tirelessly in the field of wetland habitat classification and wetland carbon capture from field research, remote sensing, and numerical modelling. As the deputy director of LA-COE, Bingqing administers a competitive grant process and provides the appropriate coordination and oversight to ensure the findings from funded projects can be implemented into Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan, thereby allowing her to facilitate the translation of research findings into actionable measures and benefiting the broader public and communities that rely on healthy wetland ecosystems.

Award for Youth Leadership. Charlotte Michaluk, a high school student in Pennington, New Jersey, is passionate about protecting coastal wetlands from the spiraling effects of climate change through innovative cargo ship design.

Charlotte designed a ship hull coating inspired by shark skin that improves ship efficiency by reducing drag and biofouling, while simultaneously minimizing invasive species transport. She also developed a concept for a hybrid wind and fossil fuel powered cargo ship that cleans exhaust and improves seakeeping, while generating auxiliary propulsive power from wind energy. Her research has been presented at numerous conferences and recognized internationally. In addition, Charlotte has gathered and analyzed field data, worked with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and advocated at public hearings to preserve ecologically critical wetlands, habitats of exceptional significance, and wildlife corridors in Central New Jersey.

Charlotte has been recognized multiple times by the Environmental Protection Agency and was winner of the 2020 Department of Defense STEM Talent Award for her work on cargo ship design. Her sister, Sonja Michaluk, was an NWA recipient in 2021.

WOTUS v. SCOTUS

On May 25, the Supreme Court, ruling in Sackett v. EPA, sharply limited the scope of the federal Clean Water Act’s protection for the nation’s waters. The Court redefined the act’s coverage of “waters of the United States,” which has been hotly contested since the Court’s 2006 decision in Rapanos v. United States.

For nearly 50 years, the Environmental Law Institute has prepared authoritative research and analysis on federal, state, and tribal wetlands and water laws, and hosted workshops focused on legal and programmatic means for wetlands protection.

Visit this site, where we’ve compiled our observations of the Sackett decision and collected materials from ELI experts to help support states, tribes, and policymakers in this new legal context.

Now in their 29th year, ELI’s National Wetland Awards are presented to individuals who have excelled in wetlands protection, restoration, and education.

“These men and women are on the forefront of protecting wetland resources in the face of development and climate impacts,” said ELI President Scott Fulton. “Through their dedication and achievements, they inspire wetlands protection across the country and worldwide.”

The ceremony kicked off with a keynote speech from Leah Krider, senior counsel, environment, health, and safety, at the Boeing Company, who described its expansion and mitigation efforts in South Carolina.

“Conservation and economic growth are not mutually exclusive. Conservation is not only good for the environment, for the communities. It makes good economic sense,” Krider said.

Awardees were recognized for their individual achievements in six categories:

Landowner Stewardship: For 28 years, William and Jeanette Gibbons and their family have devoted their time and financial resources to restoring degraded land and water on their property at Cedar Breaks Ranch in Brookings, South Dakota. They developed their property into a showcase of how various conservation practices can be seamlessly and profitably integrated into a working farm. They also use their land to further research and education on natural resource management approaches.

Science Research: Kerstin Wasson is the research coordinator at the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve in Watsonville, California. She engages citizen scientists in collecting water quality data and counting migratory shorebirds. She launched an ecosystem-based management initiative that brought together stakeholders to develop a shared vision for restoration of the estuary’s wetlands. Kerstin has led collaborative projects across the network of National Estuarine Reserves.

Education and Outreach: Mark D. Sees has served as the manager of Florida’s Orlando Wetlands Park for over 20 years. In addition to managing the wetland treatment system, he has evolved the park into a center of public recreation and wetlands education and research. He initiated the annual Orlando Wetlands Festival to provide 5,000 local children and adults an opportunity to tour the wetlands to understand their ecological importance.

State, Tribal, and Local Program Development: Maryann M. McGraw, wetland program coordinator for the New Mexico Environment Department, initiated the state’s wetlands program and continues to provide vision and guidance to ensure the program reflects the importance of wetlands and riparian areas in the arid west. She developed rapid assessment methods for montane and lowland riverine wetlands, confined valleys, and playas of the Southern High Plains, which provides data needed to underscore state wetlands water quality standards and anti-degradation policies.

Conservation and Restoration: Latimore M. Smith is a retired restoration ecologist with The Nature Conservancy in Covington, Louisiana. A botanist and plant community ecologist, he spent over 15 years with the Louisiana Natural Heritage Program, documenting the ecology of habitats across the state. He was the first to formally describe a variety of previously undocumented natural wetland communities, including rare longleaf pine flatwood wetlands.

Wetlands Business Leader: Roy R. “Robin” Lewis III of Salt Springs, Florida, was the winner of this new award. For more than four decades, Lewis has been at the vanguard of wetland restoration and creation, designing or assisting in the design of over 200 projects around the world. He founded two environmental consulting companies and is president of Coastal Resource Group, Inc., a nonprofit educational and scientific organization. He also works with the Association of State Wetland Managers to provide education opportunities and resources.

Ramsar Convention event presages 13th conference of parties

Before the 29th Annual National Wetlands Awards ceremony — see facing page — ELI hosted a panel discussion on the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance.

The treaty calls attention to the rate at which wetland habitats are disappearing, in part due to a lack of understanding of their importance. The convention provides an international framework for action and cooperation to promote “the conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local and national actions and international cooperation.”

The United States became a party to the convention in 1986 and has since designated 38 sites covering 4.5 million acres nationwide.

Attendees of the program, An Introduction to the Ramsar Convention, learned about efforts at the local, national, and international level to implement the accord.

Panelists included Cade London, Fish and Wildlife Service; Maryann M. McGraw, New Mexico Environment Department; and Barbara De Rosa-Joynt of the State Department.

After receiving an overview of the evolution of the convention and insight into the international community, the audience heard about the primary goals of Ramsar at the domestic level.

The convention covers a broad range of ecosystems considered as natural and man-made. The final presentation focused on one Ramsar site in New Mexico. The Roswell Artesian Wetlands is a desert ecosystem made up of a complex of springs, lakes, sinkholes and saline wetlands situated along the Pecos River. These wetlands support over 360 species of waterfowl as well as other animals and plants, including a number of rare, endemic, and endangered species.

As panelist De Rosa-Joynt explained, wetlands knowledge and science is consistently evolving and informing the future goals of the convention.

The 13th conference of the parties will be held this fall in Dubai. Themed “Wetlands for a Sustainable Urban Future,” the conference is expected to draw over 1,200 representatives from the parties. On the agenda are climate change; agriculture; so-called “blue carbon”; and polar wetlands.

Aiding China in coming to grips with country’s excessive pollution

In March, ELI, with the assistance of the Pillsbury law firm, prepared a report, Managing Environmental Protection and Economic Considerations Under Select U.S. Environmental Laws and Permitting Systems, for China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection. The study explains how the United States has balanced economic considerations and environmental protection through the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Endangered Species Act.

ELI and the China Environmental Protection Foundation then held capacity building workshops at the Tianjin University Law School on environmental public interest litigation. While the focus was on participation of Chinese NGOs, other entities involved included Supreme People’s Court judges and prosecutors from the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.

Reforms to China’s Environmental Protection Law establish authorities for the government and the public alike, with the added ability of authorized civil society groups to file citizen suits. However, the success of these improved systems relies on a multifaceted system of accountability, with both the government and civil society playing roles. ELI is providing technical assistance, capacity building, and legal training to NGOs that have been approved by the civil authorities to engage in civil environmental litigation.

ELI staff attorney Zhuoshi Liu has been a leader in this public interest environmental litigation capacity building work, and in developing and hosting the workshops. A China native, Liu brings a wealth of knowledge to ELI’s China Program and the Institute as a whole.

Participants also benefitted from the expertise of ELI faculty from the Institute’s extended community.

Jeff Gracer of Sive, Paget & Riesel P.C., a member of ELI’s Leadership Council, traveled to China for January’s conference. The conferences included presentations from Leadership Council members Robert (Buzz) Hines of Farella Braun + Martel LLP, and former ELI President Leslie Carothers as well as longtime member Dan Guttman of New York University Shanghai.

Field Notes: ELI on the scene in flooded Ohio, polluted Gulf

In summer 2017, ELI Senior Science and Policy Analyst, Rebecca Kihslinger, and ELI’s partners at the University of North Carolina’s Institute for the Environment, traveled to Ottawa, Ohio, where state and village officials and residents and business owners came together to brainstorm on uses for flood buyout properties during the Making the Most of Ottawa’s Floodplain Buyouts Workshop.

Ottawa had purchased 55 floodplain properties since 2008, totaling 25 acres, using funding from government grants, Hazard Mitigation Grants, and Hazard Mitigation Assistance grants. Recently, the Federal Emergency Management Agency approved the first of three major projects planned to utilize these buyout properties by the Greenspace Development Committee. A once vacant lot will become Rex Center Park.

❧

In continuation of ELI’s work in the Gulf of Mexico since the BP oil spill eight years ago, ELI traveled to Gulfport, Mississippi, to encourage public engagement efforts. To help members of the public better understand how to get involved, ELI, along with Environmental Management Services, Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United, and Public Lab, co-sponsored an event on Engaging in the Gulf Restoration Processes: How the Public Can Help Shape Restoration. The goal of this event was to provide participants with tools and information that they can use to more effectively take part in and understand the restoration and recovery efforts.

❧

On April 16, ELI and co-sponsors convened a panel of environmental justice leaders, including keynote speaker Rep. Raul Ruiz, co-author of the proposed Environmental Justice Act of 2017.

Continuing discussions from a panel held last November, speakers explored climate justice, siting issues, ramifications of extreme weather events on marginalized communities, and ways in which practitioners can empower and support environmental justice communities through their own work.

A networking reception followed to further conversation and discussion of key topics at the forefront of environmental justice. On display was the newly released book from ELI Press Environmental Justice: Legal Theory and Practice, 4th Edition.

❧

After announcing his $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan, President Trump has sought to streamline and expedite the environmental review and permitting process for projects under multiple environmental laws, ranging from the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, and Migratory Bird Treaty Act to the Clean Air and Clean Water acts.

Trump submitted to Congress an ambitious legislative “roadmap,” which proposes a number of far-reaching changes to the environmental review framework with a goal of shortening the process for approving projects to two years or less.

To examine these developments ELI and Arnold & Porter cohosted a conference entitled Infrastructure Review and Permitting: Is Change in the Wind? High-level government officials, practitioners representing industry and environmental NGOs, and congressional representatives were present to address the wide range of environmental permitting and review challenges across sectors, including transportation, energy, transmission, renewables, and more.

Panelists discussed the role of policy and litigation in shaping these developments over the next years and beyond.