T. Edward Nickens

Editor of the NCWF Journal, Nickens serves as editor-at-large of Field & Stream magazine, and is a contributor to Smithsonian, National Wildlife, Audubon, National Geographic Adventure, Men’s Journal, Wildlife in North Carolina and others. He’s won more than 30 national awards for his freelance magazine journalism, and consults for non-profit organizations that range from the National Wildlife Federation to the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum. He has chaired the Governors Conservation Achievement Awards Program for 8 years.

Good evening!

Wow! Look at all these people. I have to admit, this is unexpected

For the first time ever, this year we asked the U.S. Navy Bird Strike Avoidance Study Committee to handle us out with banquet planning. Yes, we did. I the Navy to come up with an estimate of the number of people we should expect here tonight, and they went out and did their studies and some more studies, and they told us that after they paid off the hotel staff to throw away all the food in the kitchen, cover the parking lot with thumbtacks and cut power to the building, they figured no more than 3 or 4 people would show up.

Shoo, little bird. Go away! Shoo

21 awards. We have 21 awards to give out tonight. That’s the most ever.

Now, if you’ve never been to one of these events before, you might think, 21 awards, wow, that sounds great!

But if you’ve sat through one of these events before, right now there is a pounding scream in your head as you’re thinking: NOOOOO! NOT 21 awards!

But as they say, when life gives you lemons, you make…..biocitrus diesel, of course. Come on. It’s the 21st century! By next week we’ll be making jet fuel out of tonight’s napkins. Of course. They’ll smell like French fries.

You should know that that is my very last joke for the evening. Not only do they not get better, they just, they just…vanish. Nothing.

21 awards. Holey moley. Better get started.

We’re here tonight to celebrate the accomplishments of a few people and organizations that do not need federally funded studies, threats of legal action, court decisions, or public outrage to spur them on to do what heart and soul compel: which is to protect the fraying pieces of fabric that bind together the wildlife heritage of North Carolina.

In this room is gathered a cross-section of persons who care. They care about freshwater mussels that have survived in North Carolina streams for millenia—until our time. They care about preserving the large intact expanses of wildlands that have been considered the birthright of North Carolina citizens --until the last few years. They care about a creature like a northern pine snake, and a place like the Chowan River, and they care about the sobering fact that it is possible—no, probable—to spend a summer morning walking their fields and never enjoy the charity of a single bobwhite whistle, or meadowlark song. Not long ago, the calls would ring from hedgerow to hedgerow, like the chimes of a church.

Not long ago. Not long ago, North Carolinians didn’t know so-o-o many people wanted so-o-o-o much of their land for so many uses that would diminish its ability to sustain the bird, the fish, the crawdad, the turtle.

And so we are here, here to honor people and organizations and institutions who work for wildlife not because they are forced to, but because a North Carolina without vibrant communities of wildlife and wild lands is a possibility they cannot be forced to contemplate. They are the 2006 Governor’s Conservation Achievement Awards winners.

Now ladies and gentlemen, let’s meet the 2006 Governors Conservation Achievement Award Winners.

Most years, in those rare and special years when we do induct an individual into the N.C. Conservation Hall of Fame, it is a closely held secret. The inductee has no idea about the forthcoming honor.

That was not possible this year, for we lost John Pechmann in July of this past year. Already he had amassed a stupendous resume of conservation achievement. He is our inductee into the North Carolina Conservation Hall of Fame.

Hall of Fame
John Pechmann

A Fayetteville attorney, John Pechman served as chairman of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission from 1999 until his passing in 2006. John loved many aspects of the outdoor life, but above them all, he loved fishing. And he loved the simplest elements of fishing. To pull a fat redbreast sunfish from some shady cypress hole on his beloved South River was a stroke of good fortune that he never lost the ability to treasure.

But as much as John loved to live in the moment, as a conservationist, he was never content to dream in the moment. His passion was linking the past to the future. His calling was to build a bridge from North Carolina’s unmatched heritage of outdoor recreation to a sustainable future where access to wildlife and wild lands and environmental education would be unmatched, as well.

When John Pechmann assumed the gavel of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, the Commission managed almost a million acres of public game lands, and operated a single wildlife education center. During his years as chairman, managed game lands increased to well over 2 million acres, and the Commission could boast of three fully-staffed and operational wildlife education centers, with a fishing and aquatic education center in Fayetteville underway. That center, expected to open later this year, is named after him to recognize his commitment to fishing in North Carolina and its anglers.

John Pechmann pushed for programs in the Wildlife Commission that have touched countless lives in so many creative ways. He formed a Disabled Sportsmen’s Committee to heighten hunting and fishing opportunities for those with disabilities. As a result, 51 of the 185 boating access areas managed by the commission are now handicapped accessible.

He revitalized Nort Carolina’s state hatcheries, which now support populations of both game and nongame fish.

Pechmann was instrumental in the approval, funding and construction of the commission’s administrative headquarters on N.C. State’s Centennial Campus. This is a building touted as a national model of sustainable, green building design.

He pushed community fishing outreach programs so that city kids could experience the same thrill of landing a fish that led him to a lifetime of working for wildlife.

On my office computer resides email from John, inviting—no, imploring—me to come fish with him on the South and Black rivers. For the last three years in a row, all during spring, he’d email me photos of what I was missing. “You gotta come,” he’d say. “You won’t believe it,” he’d say.

I never went.

But because of John Pechmann, there yet remain so many places I can go, with my children and friends and family, that likely would have been closed off to the likes of me—an ordinary North Carolina citizen with nothing more to offer than an $8 per year Game Lands pass.

A brass plaque and a round of applause are embarassingly small accolades to pay in the honor of a man who gave so much. In a way, the North Carolina Conservation Hall of Fame is altogether unnecessary. By the time a man or woman deserves to be there, their names will be long remembered for their achievements where it matters—out there, beyond the sidewalk and beyond the city where what wild of Carolina remains. But what we have to offer tonight is a brass plaque, and cherished memories, and the promise that John Pechmann’s vision of the future will in some ways become our own. John Edward Pehmann is the newest member of the North Carolina Conservation Hall of Fame. His wife Amy, and others who loved the man, are here tonight to celebrate his memory.

Conservationist of the Year
Katherine Skinner

There are places in North Carolina that yet appear as if they have been touched by nothing more than wind and water and time.

There are places along the Chowan River where it appears that no human hand has ever rippled the current. There are fields of sundews and Venus’ Flytraps in the Green Swamp where you can imagine bison stepping out from the shadows. There are places left in North Carolina where, if you squint just right, and hold your head just so, it looks like….like….like it always did.

A lot of those places—a lot of those places—are places shaped in large measure by the hands of Katherine Skinner.

2006 marked the 20th anniversary of Katherine Skinner’s work with the North Carolina Chapter of the The Nature Conservancy. Those are 20 years whose passage is marked not by months or moons, but by places saved forever. Grandfather Mountain. The blue wall of Jocassee. The Roan Highlands. Rumbling Bald. Raven Rock. Shocco Creek and Green Swamp. The lower Roanoke bottomlands, whose vastness is unsurpassed in the South.

Without these, North Carolina simply would cease to be North Carolina.

Skinner was instrumental in creating the two trust funds that help underwrite many of the state’s blockbuster conservation deals. She has worked on countless boards and committees, and shepherded countless negotiations for conservation lands.

And then there was last year. When International Paper Company announced that it planned to sell 6.8 million acres in the US, Skinner spearheaded a NC team that ultimately will protect nearly 80,000 acres of forested land in eastern North Carolina. Nearly 80 percent of the land will be transferred to the Wildlife Commission, adding 65,000 acres to its game lands program.

That was a pretty big deal, in more ways than one. And that latest achievment, against a backdrop of lifetime achievement, ensures a place for North Carolinians to fish and paddle and boat and roam and wonder—Was it always like this?

Maybe. But without Katherine Skinner, this much is clear: It would not always be like this. The Nature Conservancy’s Katherine Skinner is the 2006 Governor’s Conservationist of the Year.

Wildlife Volunteer of the Year
Carol Buie-Jackson

If you think about all the different ways an individual can work directly for wildlife, it’s quite amazing. From erecting nesting boxes to certifying backyard wildlife habitats, from volunteering for litter cleanups to planting wildlife gardens in public spaces—there are so many ways to get personally involved in wildlife habitat conservation that you would think someone might build an organization just to bring together people who love to do these sorts of things.

That someone in 2006, was Carol Buie-Jackson. The Matthews resident spearheaded the founding of a wildlife stewardship organization, Habitat and Wildlife Keepers, or HAWK. At its first meeting, in September, the meeting room was standing room only before Buie-Jackson could get all the snacks out OF their bags. “This is a way for the average person to go to work and get their hands dirty for wildlife,” Buie-Jackson told the Charlotte Observer. She thought 8 or 10 people might come. More than 70 showed up.

The first in the NCWF’s new state chapter network, HAWK will work to give local folks the means to engage directly in wildlife habitat improvement projects. We hope it’s the first of many such local clubs.

Her nominators wrote that “Carol’s favorite quote, which is attached to all of her correspondence, is Margaret Mead’s observation, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Buie-Jackson’s challenge now is to change the world with a group of thoughtful, committed people that will surely grow ever larger, largely due to her infectious enthusiasm and ability to connect people to the places they treasure. Carol Buie-Jackson is our 2006 North Carolina Wildlife Volunteer of the Year.

Natural Resources Scientist
Michael Street

Over the course of his 37-year history with the Division of Marine Fisheries, Mike Street has served as biologist and chief of four different sections of the division. But ask him whom he works for, and Street has been known to say: “I work for the fish.” That’s an understanding of purpose that has defined Street’s career, and has exemplified his work on one of the most promising conservation opportunities to come along in saltwater fish conservation: the development of Coastal Habitat Protection Plans.

Street’s understanding of the importance of habitat has its roots far from North Carolina, in the waters of Florida’s Keys and Everglades, which he roamed as a kid. But Street has guided DMF habitat plans to conserve some of the Tar Heel State’s most valuable coastal resources, from submerged aquatic vegetation beds to shellfish bottoms to saltmarsh. It’s a task made burdensome by politics, and difficult due to the fact that there is seemingly no end to the threats to resource conservation.

But in his nomination essay for Street, Lynn Henry wrote that, “There is much more work to do to implement CHHP recommendations, and a continuing need to provide input on environmental impacts. I am sure that Mike has the energy and motivation to continue these efforts.”

Just as we are sure that we would like to see his legacy of achievement continue. Michael Street is the 2006 Governor’s Natural Resources Scientist of the Year.

Natural Resources Agency
NC Ecosystem Enhancement Program

The Ecosystem Enhancement Program is a partnership between the N.C. Department of the Environment and Natural Resources, the N.C. Department of Transportation, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It provides high-quality, cost-effective environmental migation for projects that produce unavoidable environmental impacts. These projects restore water quality and enhance economic development and initiates …. Holy Cow, who writes this boring junk. Oh, I did. Sorry.

Let me start over. All of what I just said about the EEP is true. It’s all true. But so is this.

When you stand at the confluence of the Uwharrie and the Little Uwharrie Rivers in Randolph County, and the wild pink azaleas are in bloom, and white wild indigo flowers are open, and you reach down to touch a rare Carolina creekshell mussell, you are there because the Ecosystem Enhancement Program works.

When you look out over Little Tablerock Mountain from the Blue Ridge Parkway, you can count the forested corners of three mountain counties and not the entrance signs to three mountain developments, because the Ecosystem Enhancement Program works.

And when you cast a line into the cypress-clad Cashie River in Bertie County, and cross your fingers that the mother of all shad will take a liking to your lure, you should also cross your fingers that the North Carolina Ecosystem Enhancement Program continues working.

In 3 years the EEP has purchased 36,700 acres in collaboration with public and private partners. 14 of these parcels have been transferred to the state for use as parks and gamelands, and include 214 miles of stream buffeers and 8,000 acres of wetlands.

You don’t have to understand the ins and outs of the EEPs intricate partnerships. Just be thankful that this agency is out there, day after day, trying to mitigate lemonade from lemons, and preserving precious jewels of Tar Heel wildlands in the process. The North Carolian Ecosystem Enhancement Program is our Natural Resources Agency of the Year.

Wildlife Law Enforcement Officer of the Year
Ryan H. Taylor

The next time you want to complain about having to work late, let me suggest that you consider the case of Ryan H. Taylor. Taylor is a wildlife officer in Patrol Area Three of Carteret County. His supervisor described him as “a one-man officer in a two-man County.” Health issues sidelined the other Cartaret County officer during this past hunting season, so Taylor rolled up his sleeves and went to work. He instructed all the Hunter Safety education courses for Carteret. He planned undercover duck details on the far side of the county and made three cases there. He planned a 5-man bear-hunting undercover bust that resulted in 22 charges, and organized 11 deer decoy setups. In the field, Officer Taylor had personal contact with over 350 hunters, 130 fishermen, and 1,230 boaters. Along the way he organized and ran the first deer decoy operations handled by boat, issued 257 citations, and assisted the US Forest Service in GPS tracking on the waterways in his area for a Coastal Kayak Trail project.

And Taylor does all of this without complaint, and in an outgoing manner that might surprise you. “His courteous demeanor,” his supervisor tells me, “allows him to be the type of Officer that receives a "thank-you" from the person to whom he has just finished writing a citation.” Now, that’s not something I’d like to witness firsthand, but I’d like to meet the kind of law enforcement officer who performs his job with that kind of passion. In fact, let’s all meet him: Senior Oficer Ryan Taylor, the 2006 Wildlife Enforcement Officer of the Year.

Marine Fisheries Enforcement Officer of the Year
Lee Cornelius

The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries has 59 officers to oversee 4,000 commercial fishermen, 9,000 recreational commercial gear holders, and 2 million recreational anglers, in a territory that includes all sounds, river mouths, and coastal waters all the way out to 3 miles into the open ocean. Hard to imagine that much responsibility. Sometimes it’s all I can to do make sure I shut the gate so the dog doesn’t get out of the yard.

But for 17 years Lee Cornelius has patrolled the Cape Fear region of the North Carolina coast, making sure that the door doesn’t close on what yet remains our vast natural treasures of saltwater fish and shellfish. His supervisors say that Cornelius has lost none of his enthusiasm for patrolling North Carolina waters, and that he is always willing to take on new assignments. He has been a firearms instructor for years, serves as a Marine Patrol Field Training Officer, and and teaches law enforcement courses at Cape Fear Community College.

Officer Cornelius fell in love with the salt and the sea and the creatures found there when he was just a child. His goal as an adult is to make sure that new generations of North Carolinians have the chance to do the same. Lee Cornelius is the 2006 Marine Patrol Officer of the Year.

Hunter Safety Education Instructor/Organization of the Year
Philip M. “Mickey” Strader

According to Fred Rorrer, a hunter safety specialist with the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, Mickey Strader never says “no.” That’s easy to believe when you read about Strader’s accomplishemnts as a hunter safety education instructor in a single year. In 2006 alone, Strader spent more than 2,000 volunteer hours teaching basic field archery and safety. He instructed more than 8,300 youth and 1,500 adults. Doing all that required 1,3000 miles of driving.

He worked with schools to teach first graders basic archery, and helped introduce a middle school in Caswell County to the National Archery in the Schools Program, which attracted more than 300 participants.

He led or assisted in 7 Hunter safetey courses and 2 advanced bowhunter courses.

Strader has been a critical player in the Wildlife Commission’s program to take hunter safety education to every corner of the state, utilizing education trailers that were used for more than 40 weekends last year.

And after all of this hard work and sacrifice and commitment, what does Mickey Strader have to say? That he is a lucky man to be able to do the things he loves with the people he loves. I say that North Carolina is lucky to have such an unselfish person share his passion for hunter education. Mickey Strader is the Govenor’s 2006 Hunter Safety Instructor of the Year

Business Conservationist of the Year
Bryan Properties

There is no vibrant future for conservation without a partnership with business interests, especially a partnership that links local conservation-minded businesses with local, specific, impact-oriented conservation projects. Public interests and public monies can only do so much. That’s why it is so critical that businesses like Bryan Properties, and business leaders like D.R. Bryan, come together to identify and capitalize on those opportunities where business and the environment win in a big way.

That was the situation over the last few years in Durham and the Triangle. Over the course of three years, Bryan Properties donated to the Triangle Land Conservancy 325 acres of property and conservation easements near the Little River in Durham County, and 670 acres near Horton Grove. All told, that’s nearly 1,000 acres with a cumulative value of some $11 million.

And its not just land donation that sets Bryan Properties apart, but land development. At its Southern Village development, anti-sprawl and smart growth philosophies are evident – providing residents of Southern Village and the greater Triangle region with a vision of growth that is more concerned with the possibilities of the future than the positivity of profits.

For its unselfish protection of more than 5 miles of the Little River and its tributaries, and its leadership in proving that smart growth works, Bryan Properties is the 2006 Business Conservationist of the Year.

Municipal Conservationist of the Year
Brian A. Roth

Brian Roth is the mayor of Plymouth, NC, way down east not so far from the larger town that real North Carolinians know as “little Washington.” Plymouth is one of the luckiest towns in North Carolina, and if anyone begs to differ, Roth will tell them why. He can tell you that the town anchors a region of natural beauty and wildness that is unmatched in eastern North Carolina. He can tell you about the town’s nature trail, and a new birding trail, and a museum that interpets the region’s Civil War history. He can tell you about family farms in the rolling countryside just outside of town that have been worked by the same families for 100 years and more.

Plymouth is also one of the pluckiest towns in North Carolina, although it’s had it’s pluck—and its luck—tested of late. Roth has helped lead a grassroots and gut-wrenching effort to turn back the U.S. Navy’s plans to place a massive training field—the Outlying Landing Field—in the middle of one of the ancient migrating corridors of North America, in the midst of a constellation of national wildlife refuges, in the very marrow of a region whose heritage of family farming is a national treasure—all of which is in Brian Roth’s backyard.

There is not enough time to recount the intricate storyline of this fight. But let me say this: the people of Plymouth and the surrounding area, under the leadership of folks like Mayor Roth, have shown this state and shown this country what true grassroots activism is – what it can do, how it can bring together and galvanize the farmer, the shopkeeper, the schoolchild, the politician, the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker – bring them all together to articulate a consensus of what matters most to their community and do all in their power to save it Win or lose – win or lose – Roth and the people of the Plymouth area deserve our gratitude for breathing new life into a fundament of American life: that the will of the people—not to mention the instinct of several hundred thousand geese, swans and ducks—shall not be ignored. He is the 2006 Municipal Conservationist of the Year.

Legislator of the Year
Sen. Daniel G. Clodfelter (Mecklenberg-D)

Dan Clodfelter is a Charlotte-based attorney and Democratic senator who has been involved in some of the most critical environmental legislation of the last half-decade. He sponsored the Clean Cars Act to cut smog and toxic pollution by requiring new, gasoline powered vehicles produced for sale in North Carolina to meet stricter emission standards. North Carolina would be the first state in the Southeast to pass such legislation which would make more fuel efficient and hybrid vehicles available to our residents. He introduced stormwater management legislation that will apply in (roughly) 24 counties, going much further than previous standards to protect fish and other aquatic wildlife from runoff from new development. He opposed interbasin water transfers. And importantly, he led the early effort for the Land for Tomorrow bond referendum. This proposal called for raising $1 billion for a long-range plan to save much of the state’s open spaces that support rare species, water quality, and heritage farmland. Clodfelter watched Land for Tomorrow gain much steam, but then it lost support in last year’s session. His leadership will be needed again in the next session as conservationists rally to keep the dream of open, undeveloped, wild landscapes in the Tar Heel state alive the North Carolina legislature. We salute Senator Dan Clodfelter and his work on behalf of keeping the promise of Land for Tomorrow. He is our 2006 Legislator of the Year.

Conservation Organization of the Year
Neuse River Foundation

The particular achievements of the Neuse River Foundation are lengthy and noteworthy: The NRF generated more than 1,000 public comments on Butner’s request to dump 61,000 pounds of nitrogen into Falls Lake each year. It’s volunteer Air Force has documented 100s of Clean Water Act violations. Working with the Waterkeeper Alliance, NRF help secure an agreement with Smithfield Foods to change hog waste disposal at more than 275 facilities. And the organization’s annual River Cleanup is the state’s largest. In four years, 53,000 pounds of trash have been collected from the river. That’s equivalent to the weight of nearly 5 elephants—or approximately 6.3 billion copies of the newly published History of the NC House of Representatives.

But perhaps the greatest achievement of the Neuse River Foundation is the way it has been able to convince an enormous number of North Carolinian’s who live far from the bank of a creek or stream that they are, indeed, the citizens of a river. It wasn’t so long ago that most people in North Carolina figured the Neuse River was just a squiggly blue line on a map. Raleigh only nudged the river in a few places. Its connection to the coastal environment seemed tenuous at best. But residents of the Neuse River basin, though they may live 5 miles from the nearest kingfisher, no longer feel disconnected from this critical waterway. The Neuse River Foundation, through its activism, its riverkeepers, and its consistent message that a region’s river truly is the tie that binds, has raised the status of the Neuse. And has raised awareness of river conservation to a level unprecedented in this region. The Neuse River Foundation is the 2006 Governor’s Conservation Organization of the Year.

Affiliates of the Year <100 members
Carteret County Wildlife Club

It’s difficult to know where to start describing just what the Carteret County Wildlife Club is, and what it does, and how it works, since it seems to be a little bit of everywhere, doing a lot of everything, as long as it has something to do with helping wildlife find a way to hang on in Carteret County. The club is perhaps best known for its decades of work pioneering the Neusiok Trail through Croatan National Forest, and in the last year club members have built more than 700 feet of wooden walkways across sensitive wetlands in the Croatan, opening up exquisite Coastal Plain woodlands to hikers. The club also built a 2 mile birding trail, and has undertaken the construction of a second trail through the Croatan, which is awaiting approval from the US Forest Service to start construction.

From working on trail shelters to manning booths at the N.C. Seafood Festival, from lobbying for four years for a fishing pier at the Morehead-Beaufort bridge—which will open this year—to hosting wild game dinners and oyster roasts and herring fries and barbecues, the Carteret County Wildlife Club was as vital and energetic in 2006 as it was when it formed 52 years ago, in 1955, and was chartered as an affiliate of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation. We were proud of them then, and proud of them now. The Carteret County Wildlife Club is our Affiliate of the Year for clubs with less than 100 members.

Affiliates of the Year >100 members
Catawba Valley Wildlife Club

Our large club affiliate of the year also happens to be an old friend. The Catawba Valley Wildlife Club has been in existence since 1939.

You know, my 7-year-old son Jack loves to hear about what life was like way back when I was growing up. He’s always asking, Hey, Dad, did you have Game Boys when you were a kid? Cell phones? Just yesterday I told him there was no such thing as fleece when I was a kid, and it blew him away. “My, gosh, Dad,” he said. “Did you just walk around naked in the wintertime?”

1939! But this 67-year-old club doesn’t act its age. In 2006 it hosted 8 Scout troops for camping trips and camporees. It helps sponsor a Christmas party for teenagers in group homes. And it’s annual fund-raising trail ride to benefit St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital raised $16,000, bringing the club’s 9-year fundraising total to just shy of $100,0000. The Catawba Valley Wildlife Club has always honored its past by being more and more involved in the work of wildlife each and every year. It is our Affiliate of the Year for clubs with more than 100 members.

Environmental Educator of the Year
Patrick Curley

In your awards booklet, you can read Patrick Curley’s comments that he “has dedicated his life to inspiring young people” to live out an environmental ethic. What he did not tell you is that this is what he has dedicated the second part of his life to. For 25 years, Curley dedicated his life to his commitment to 21 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, and then a half-decade as a district executive with the Boy Scouts. When Curley talks about commitment and dedication, he knows of which he speaks.

And he is keenly dedicated to his students at the Onslow County Learning Center, a public Alternative Learning Program for At Risk youth in grades 6-12. His students have volunteered as Stream Watchers for a coastal tidal creek that is on the school property. In order for the students to get access to this creek, Curley coordinated with the NC Prison system and had prison labor clear a trail to the creek side at no cost to the school. Students are completing service learning projects by building bridges over wet areas and improving the trail to prevent run off into the Creek. Under his leadership the Onslow County Learning Center participated in the 2005 and 2006 Coastal, and State Envirothons—it was the first school from Onslow County that has ever participated in this annual event.

These days, Curley leads a school Aquaculture program, a Oyster Shell recycling program in partnership with Hammocks Beach State Park, and the school’s biological survey of a nearby wetland. The only thing at-risk in a Patrick Curley science classroom, it seems, is boredom. For a life dedicated to service in so many ways, and for an educational career designed specifically to shape a new generation of citizens in tune with the wild, Patrick Curley is the 2006 Environmental Educator of the Year.

Land Conservationist of the Year
Candace Williams

There is nothing quite like coming home. Fayetteville native Candace Williams came home to one of the most gorgeous, most surprising, and least understood landscapes in North Carolina: the pine-scented Sandhills of the state’s southcentral region. Williams came home to the Sandhills after 25 years in the nether regions of New England, where she worked as a coastal waterbird and migratory songbird specialist. She came home to make sure that this exquisite region would not lose the very beauty and complexity that defines it.

As program coordinator of the Sandhills Area Land Trust, or SALT, Williams has worked with organizations, communities, and landowners to protect more than 1,000 acres of natural lands in Cumberland and the surrounding counties. Her knack for communicating with farmers young and old, developers, community officials, and natural resource agencies has resulted in protection of places with wonderful names like Persimmon Creek, and Big White Bay, and Rhodes Pond, and Jessups Mill. Without Candace Williams, those places could be lost to development. Hardly worth coming home to. But thanks to Candace Williams and her passionate work with the Sandhills Area Land Trust, they’ll be home to prothonotary warblers and red-cockaded woodpeckers and longleaf pine. The Sandhills will continue to be the kind of place that’s easy to come home to—but hard to leave. Candace Williams is North Carolina’s 2006 Land Conservationist of the Year.

Forest Conservationist of the Year
Marshall Hartsfield

Rachel Carson wrote that “The human race is challenged more than ever before to demonstrate our mastery, not over nature, but of ourselves.” I believe this is a sentiment that Marshall Hartsfield must deal with, in real terms, every day. Hartsfield is a forester who says that his greatest accomplishments are those times when he convinces forest owners to resist the crushing pressures to clearcut their lands. Given the growing number of ways that forest owners have of making money off their land—by feeding trees to sawmills and pulpmills and chipmills, by feeding the insatiable desire for second homes and resort properties—it’s fair to say that Hartsfield has taken on quite a challenge.

But it’s a challenge this Hope Mills man has met. He currently manages more than 7,000 acres of woodlands for not only wood, but for wildlife, for bird-watching, for hunting and fishing, and for native plant restoration. He’s prepared 16 stewardship plans for private lands, and works with the Sandhills Area Land Trust to help landowners along the Cape Fear preserve the river while working their woods. It was a love of nature that convinced Marshall Hartsfield to become a forester. And it was a love of nature that helped him evolve into a forest steward. For his ability to show others the way, he is our 2006 Forest Conservationist of the Year.

Water Conservationist of the Year
William (Bill) F. Hunt, Ph.D

One of the really fun things about being involved in this program is the chance to learn about some truly fascinating people who have made enormous contributions to conservation yet somehow remain just under the rader, just out of the public’s view. That’s the case with Dr. Bill Hunt, a professor in NC State’s Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. Hunt’s expertise is stormwater management, and his reputation is growing for the creative engineering of some of the most forward-thinking, useful, and ingenious stormwater wetlands, wet ponds, water harvesting systems, and green roofs known to this emerging field.

I have by chance found myself studying the kinds of rain gardens and stormwater bioretention cells that Hunt designs, as I’ve worked on exhibits for the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s new education center. I have to say that I never thought mulch and gravel could be so thoroughly interesting. Hunt has helped pioneer the practice of designing attractive, functional landscape features that cleanse water of pollutants, filter sediment, and reduce the need for fescue lawns. All the while turning what might have been an ugly riprap field into little pocket wetlands and rain gardens.

Listen, I’m the kind of guy who thinks a packed earth and crabgrass lawn really is just fine. If I can get excited about what Bill Hunt does, then you can rest assured that its worthy of even greater fanfare. He’s like the Monet of Mulch, the Picasso of Permeable Concrete.

Neither of those titles appears on his statuette, of course. Instead, it’s a title that we hope carries with it a sense of gratitue. It reads: Dr. William F. Hunt, 2006 Water Conservationist of the Year.

Youth Conservationist of the Year
Katherine Alyse McCraw

One of the most deflating experiences of my life each year is to read the nominations for Youth Conservationist of the Year. You know, I think, hmm, writing for national magazines, handing out conservation awards—I’ve done pretty well for myself. And then I trip over the resume of some young person like Katie McCrae. I mean, we’re talking a serious, 2-page, single-spaced resume of meaningful achievements. When I was her age, I was trying to figure out how to make fry cook for a seafood joint sound like a job in nutrition counseling.

Katie McCraw has raised and released more than 400 bobwhite quail in her neighboring community. She has served as a 4-H county council president and vice-president, and has given public presentations on landscaping, embryology, and the natural history of quail. For the past three years, she’s served as a stream monitor, collecting invertebrates in the North & South Mills Rivers, identifiying macro-invertebrates and working up official reports for the state. She’s won honors in forestry and poultry judging, and won both state and national awards in the 4-H Wildlife Habitat Evaluation Program. Oh, yes. And she’s competed in the county fashion revue competition for four years.

If you want to feel better about the future, and the kinds of young people who will shape it, take a look at Katie McCraw’s resume. But a word of warning: It might make you a little self-conscious abour your own. Katherine Alyse McCraw is the 2006 Youth Conservationist of the Year.

Sportsman of the Year
Ray Rider

There is a growing interest in organic, free-range, no-cage poulty and livestock farming. Proponents point to more and more consumers who want to know that the meat on their table hasn’t been shot up with antibiotics and artificial growth hormone, that it wasn’t raised on a place where pesticides poisoned the water, and that it came from an animal that lived a life of dignity.

Environmentalists hail this new embrace of organic, free-range farming. Nutritionists think it’s great.

But guys like Ray Rider might scratch their head. To them, it sounds a lot like hunting.

Back home in Minnesota, Rider’s grandfather taught him to never take anything from nature that he could not use. It’s a lesson he’s extended, and is extending, to his children and grandchildren in around his Lincoln County home. He has taken a lead role in planning and pulling off a coveted Youth Deer Hunt on the Big Red Hunt Club in eastern North Carolina. Link Grass, who nominated Rider, wrote that he “does more than any person I know to put forth the time, effort, and money to stewarding our heritage of outdoor sports. He wants upcoming generations to see first hand what our wildlife, habitat, and environment have to offer.”

Ray Rider works tirelessly to make sure that wild places have constituents who will work to keep them wild. For that, he is our Sportsman of the Year.

Wildlife Conservationist of the Year
Alvin Braswell

Since the time Alvin Braswell was in the 5th grade back in Union County, he understood, intuitively, that all creatures, great and small, desert to thrive without apology for their scales, lack of legs, or forked tongues. Bog turtle or pine snake or Carolina gopher frog—each is a cog in the wheel of North Carolina’s ecology, an irreplaceable part of the collective, natural DNA that makes this place unlike any other. And for the last 30 years, Alvin Braswell has understood, empirically, that science is the stepping stone towards ensuring that the herpetological diversity of North Carolina isn’t paved over and pushed out or generally disregarded. His work in this regard, most currently as curator for herpetology at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, has resulted in strong state legislation in favor of our native snakes, strong state protections of native turtles that were pounded by out-of-state market collectors, and a strong educational voice that has successfully convinced so many North Carolinians that our reptile and amphibian wildlife diversity is something to celebrate.

I should point out that all of Brasell’s impressive-sounding accomplishments—chair of the NC Scientific Council on amphibians, vice-chair of the NC Non-Game Wildlife Advisory Committee, Geographic Distribution Section Editor for the Herpetological Review—all of these share a pair of common denominators that it would be remiss to ignore. Two of the primary shapers of Braswell’s conservation ethic and commitment were A) parents who encouraged his passion for slippery, wiggly things, B) teachers who fueled his desire to pursue the science of slippery, wiggly things.

The public’s understanding of, and appreciation for, reptiles and amphibians has undergone a revolution in recent years. It is scientists like Alvin Braswell who have finally convinced the public that the only good snake, or frog, or salamander is, well, whichever one you are fortunate enough to come into contact with. For leading NC out of the dark ages of herpetological inquisition, Alvin Braswell is the 2006 Governor’s Wildlife Conservationist of the Year.

CLOSING REMARKS

By the age of 6, Michael Street knew he wanted to be a marine biologist

By the 5th grade, Alvin Braswell was trying to convince his neighborhood pals not to kill snakes.

Katie McCraw’s dad used to tell her what a bobwhite sounded like. She wanted to know for herself.

These amazing people wouldn’t be here tonight, if someone hadn’t been there for them—a parent, a teacher, a mentor, a guide.

After these award winners have given so much, that’s what they have left to give us tonight. A call. A plea. A challenge for each of us to look around, and find someone who is watching us to see if we’d be willing to show them where the wild things are.

Next year. Next year I hope we gather back together to celebrate a new round of conservation heroes, and to celebrate it against a backdrop of amazing overall conservation achievement for the entire state of North Carolina. I hope …

--That a Land for Tomorrow bond bill pass with such vigor and resolution that every North Carolinian can understand why this is the watershed issue of our time.

--That a stake is finally driven in the black heart of the OLF—for all time.

--That landowners large and small be given the tools to keep their lands intact and off the selling block for the rest of time.

--And that next time we have not 21, but 121 conservation award winners to celebrate—Here, Here!??

But that’s next year. This year’s conservation heroes are here, tonight. And they all deserve a final round of applause.

Safe travels, then, and on behalf of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation, goodnight.