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

• Pages: 62-63

62 | THE ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum®, September/October 2021.

Copyright © 2021, Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org.

REPORTELI

Making Law Work for People, Places, and the Planet

ELI’s National Wetlands Awards

are presented annually to in-

dividuals who have excelled in

wetlands protection, restoration,

and education. The winners are

selected by a committee com-

posed of experts from around

the country, including represen-

tatives from each federal sup-

porting 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 Lead-

ership. Russell J. Furnari is the

manager of environmental policy

enterprise for Public Service

Enterprise Group and serves

as chair-

man of the

New Jersey

Corporate

Wetlands

Restoration

Partnership.

The NJC-

WRP is a

unique pub-

lic-private

collaborative

focused on

restoring,

preserving, enhancing, and pro-

tecting aquatic habitats through-

out New Jersey.

Through Russ’s leader-

ship and commitment, the

partnership has experienced

extraordinary success and is

considered a model for similar

Honoring Iraqi Minister | Michael L. Ross delivers inaugural Al

Moumin Lecture on Environmental Peacebuilding

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

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the environment.

Sonja’s supporters say her

familiarity with freshwater ecol-

ogy and the ease with

which she explains

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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 proj-

ect to preserve 200

acres of threatened

wetlands and old growth for-

est in Princeton, New Jersey, in

collaboration with Ridgeview

Conservancy and the Watershed

Institute.

Award for Wetlands

Program Development.

Lauren Driscoll has been com-

mitted to wetlands conservation

and restoration for more than

25 years.

Lauren has managed the

wetlands program at the Wash-

ington State Department of

Ecology since 2005. In her posi-

tion, 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

groups across the nation. Since

its inception in 2003, NJCWRP

has raised more than one mil-

lion dollars in contributions

and pledges of in-kind services

from its corporate partners,

NGOs, and academia. NJC-

WRP’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 educat-

ing the next generation of stu-

dents engaged in environmen-

tal protection. With the help

of 200 middle and high school

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project resulted in the resto-

ration of 4.5 acres of habitat

and improved surface

water quality. When

completed, the entire

project has the poten-

tial to restore more

than 60 acres of vital

habitat.

According to his

supporters, Russ’s work

building partnerships

among diverse interests,

identifying and success-

fully generating funding,

and guiding projects

through myriad approval pro-

cesses have been critical to NJC-

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the importance of having strong

support from the business com-

munity in helping to sustain and

enhance wetlands and the envi-

ronment for the future.

Award for Youth Leader-

ship. Sonja Michaluk is a re-

search scientist, writer, environ-

mental educator, and founder of

a genetics and microbiology lab.

At 17 years old, Sonja has been

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she was six and has advocated

on behalf of wetlands since she

was 11.

Between 2014 and 2020,

Sonja con-

tributed to

the preserva-

tion of over

50 acres

of ecologi-

cally sensitive

wetlands

and wildlife

corridors in

central New

Jersey. Her

data also

helped mini-

mize 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 internation-

ally. She was called a “Force of

Nature” by Friends of Hopewell

Valley Open Space, served as

a keynote speaker at The Alli-

ance 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 pan-

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National Wetlands Awards

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Sonja Michaluk

Russell J. Furnari