National Wetlands Awards Digitally recognizing five exemplary stewards of country’s natural history and heritage

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 state and local governments.

What is usually a moving ceremony held on Capitol Hill was instead conducted digitally this year.

Full descriptions of each award winner are at www.elinwa.org.

Award for Business Leadership. Russell J. Furnari is the manager of environmental policy enterprise for Public Service Enterprise Group and serves as chairman of the New Jersey Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership. The NJCWRP is a unique public-private collaborative focused on restoring, preserving, enhancing, and protecting aquatic habitats throughout New Jersey.

Through Russ’s leadership and commitment, the partnership has experienced extraordinary success and is considered a model for similar groups across the nation. Since its inception in 2003, NJCWRP has raised more than one million dollars in contributions and pledges of in-kind services from its corporate partners, NGOs, and academia. NJCWRP’s projects are located throughout New Jersey and have aided in the preservation of more than 724 acres and 35 stream miles.

One project, the Upper Wallkill Watershed Riparian Restoration and Floodplain Reforestation Initiative, aims to restore a degraded section of the Wallkill river while educating the next generation of students engaged in environmental protection. With the help of 200 middle and high school students, the first phase of the project resulted in the restoration of 4.5 acres of habitat and improved surface water quality. When completed, the entire project has the potential to restore more than 60 acres of vital habitat.

According to his supporters, Russ’s work building partnerships among diverse interests, identifying and successfully generating funding, and guiding projects through myriad approval processes have been critical to NJCWRP’s success. Russ exemplifies the importance of having strong support from the business community in helping to sustain and enhance wetlands and the environment for the future.

Award for Youth Leadership. Sonja Michaluk is a research scientist, writer, environmental educator, and founder of a genetics and microbiology lab. At 17 years old, Sonja has been a certified water monitor since she was six and has advocated on behalf of wetlands since she was 11.

Between 2014 and 2020, Sonja contributed to the preservation of over 50 acres of ecologically sensitive wetlands and wildlife corridors in central New Jersey. Her data also helped minimize the impacts of a natural gas pipeline. These research results, submitted to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, as well as Sonja’s testimony to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, helped save 1,800 trees and mitigated damage to waterways.

Sonja has been honored for her work locally and internationally. She was called a “Force of Nature” by Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space, served as a keynote speaker at The Alliance for Watershed Education’s River Days event, and has been praised by the New Jersey Senate and General Assembly and acknowledged by the New Jersey governor. Before the pandemic, she was flown to Sweden to represent the United States at World Water Week and at a climate change symposium. Her research has been published in the Encyclopedia Britannica, and she has presented at numerous conferences and was featured in films about climate change and the environment.

Sonja’s supporters say her familiarity with freshwater ecology and the ease with which she explains scientific concepts to others make her an effective teacher. She has been educating the public about wetlands conservation and water monitoring for over ten years.

Sonja’s current work includes a project to preserve 200 acres of threatened wetlands and old growth forest in Princeton, New Jersey, in collaboration with Ridgeview Conservancy and the Watershed Institute.

Award for Wetlands Program Development. Lauren Driscoll has been committed to wetlands conservation and restoration for more than 25 years.

Lauren has managed the wetlands program at the Washington State Department of Ecology since 2005. In her position, she advances the agency’s role in the protection of wetland resources throughout the state. This includes ensuring statewide consistency in implementation of the Clean Water Act Section 401 water quality certifications for wetlands, developing and delivering technical tools and science-based guidance, and providing expert technical assistance to local wetland regulators. Lauren also mentors wetland technical staff across the state and secures grants for wetlands program activities.

Lauren’s expertise in wetland policy and mitigation has substantially strengthened the state’s work in these areas. She played a major role in establishing the state’s wetland bank certification program, and continues to provide oversight for Washington’s wetlands compliance and wetland banking programs.

Lauren’s work often serves as a model for other programs across the country. For example, she oversaw the development of Washington’s first EPA-approved Wetland Program Plan, a six-year strategy that formalizes program development and provides a longer-term vision for the state’s wetland management. Washington’s approach to the plan inspired several other states. Similarly, Lauren worked with the state’s interagency Voluntary Stewardship Program committee to create a coordinated and comprehensive statewide stewardship approach that serves as a national model.

Lauren has worked tirelessly to not only strengthen wetlands protection in her own state but also to actively engage in national planning and decision-making. These efforts include coordinating the state’s response to several federal rulemakings, such as the Navigable Waters Protection Rule.

Lauren’s supporters describe her as a skilled communicator who can bridge the gap between policymakers and scientists, and engage with an often diverse and divisive state legislature. Through her outstanding communication and leadership, Lauren has managed to keep the wetlands program intact by demonstrating its importance even during lean economic times.

Her dedication and expertise have earned her the respect of colleagues across the country.

Award for Local Stewardship. Wenley Ferguson has spent the last 31 years working for Save The Bay, an environmental nonprofit organization in Providence, Rhode Island, where she now serves as director of habitat restoration.

Throughout her career, Wenley has partnered with federal, state, and local entities to advance projects that restore and enhance coastal and estuarine habitats and improve community resilience, working tirelessly to bring projects from conception to implementation and adaptive management.

Wenley is a leader in identifying and assessing climate change impacts to coastal wetlands within Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts. She is also an expert in advancing new and emerging restoration and management approaches in the southern New England region.

Wenley and her Save The Bay colleagues were the first to identify the drowning of otherwise healthy coastal marshes in Rhode Island due to sea level rise. Using a monitoring and assessment program developed by Save The Bay and state partners, two of these marshes were identified as especially vulnerable to accelerated rising waters. Wenley worked tirelessly with local, state, and federal partners to restore the drowning marshes and build their resiliency to climate change.

As a leader in her organization and community, Wenley is involved in all facets of coastal restoration projects. She is consistently on the ground assessing project success, adaptively managing projects, developing community engagement and outreach strategies, and supporting student researchers. Active in local education, Wenley has also led volunteer teams to engage local communities and advocates about the importance of conserving marsh migration corridors. She collaborates with local researchers and has contributed to several peer-reviewed publications related to coastal marsh conditions and restoration.

Award for Promoting Awareness. Xavier Cortada is an artist and professor of practice in the University of Miami’s Department of Art and Art History. For 15 years, Xavier has creatively harnessed the power of art to motivate fellow Miami-Dade County residents to learn about, conserve, and restore mangrove wetlands.

Xavier’s highly innovative eco-art projects include a volunteering project that encouraged neighbors to build up climate change resiliency by growing salt-tolerant mangroves in their yards. He also created the nation’s first underwater homeowner’s association to address the threat of rising seas and saltwater intrusion into a community’s freshwater aquifer.

One of Xavier’s most notable eco-art initiatives is the Reclamation Project, which aimed to engage “eco-emissaries” in rebuilding ecosystems above and below the waterline. Volunteers installed meticulously arranged grids of mangrove propagules in water-filled cups in the street-facing windows of local restaurants and shops. Passersby, intrigued by the displays, often asked for more information or read the accompanying information about mangroves. When the propagules matured, volunteers replanted them in a community ritual reclaiming the water’s edge for nature.

Xavier repeated the project annually for six years, reaching roughly 200,000 people. To date, the project has engaged over 10,000 volunteer participants, helping to restore 25 acres of coastal habitat.

After 2012, the Miami-Dade County community assumed responsibility for the project. It continues today through volunteers at the Frost Science Museum, in public schools county-wide, and in communities across Florida and beyond who have emulated Xavier’s project.