The Minnesota Chapter of The Wildlife Society recently announced the recipients of their annual awards program. The Chapter presented its first awards in 1958. 

The Minnesota Award has been given to Minnesota’s top conservationist annually since 1958 and was presented this year to John Moriarty. It is the Chapter’s highest award and is presented to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to Minnesota’s wildlife and natural resources. He is currently the Senior Manager for Wildlife for the 23,000 acres in the Three Rivers Park District in the West Metro region of the Twin Cities.

“The list of accomplishments by John in his career is long,” said Jodie Provost, previous recipient of both the Minnesota and Dr. Janet Boe Memorial Awards. “His nearly 40 years in the wildlife profession has focused on management of wildlife resources and parks and connecting the public to those resources. He has secured nearly $4,000,000 in grants for wildlife surveys and reintroduction efforts. He has authored or co-authored over 100 scientific publications. This includes 5 books written alone or in collaboration with others, such as Amphibians and Reptiles of Minnesota, A Field Guide to the Natural World of the Twin Cities, A Guide to Birding in Ramsey County, Turtles and Turtle Watching in the North Central States, and Minnesota’s Natural Heritage.”

“I am honored and humbled to receive the Minnesota Award from the Minnesota Chapter of The Wildlife Society,” said Moriarty. “It seems hard to believe that I have been involved with the chapter for over 35 years! I have met many good friends and colleagues through my work with the Chapter. And many of the previous Minnesota Award recipients are friends and mentors who I have looked up to for most of my career. Being added to that list is a highlight in my career.”

The Voyageurs Conservancy received the Conservation Award, given to an organization or institution that has shown an outstanding commitment to Minnesota’s natural resources. Voyageurs Conservancy is a non-profit conservation organization based in Minneapolis.

“The Conservancy is especially near and dear to us at Voyageurs because without the Conservancy, there would be no park,” said Brian Harmon, Head of Resource Management at Voyageurs National Park.  “The Conservancy was founded in 1965 by passionate leaders who recognized the need for a national park to preserve the lands and waters of the Border Region. Their energy and advocacy were essential in establishing Voyageurs National Park. Today, the park’s 218,000 acres provides protected and undeveloped habitats for over 300 species of native wildlife.”

“Voyageurs Conservancy has been the official friends group of Voyageurs National Park since 2019, but our friendship goes back many years”, said Voyageurs Conservancy Board of Directors Member Matt Mueller. “We’re very excited about our future work to further expand our commitment to the park’s natural resources by working with the National Park Service to launch the Voyageurs Field Fellow Program, which gives young conservationists career experience in a National Park setting.”

The Dr. Janet Boe Memorial Award was presented to Dr. Charlotte Roy, which recognizes a professional woman or outstanding female graduate or undergraduate student who exemplifies the consummate natural resource scientist. She has been a research scientist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in Grand Rapids since 2007, and her current research focuses on addressing information needs for Minnesota’s grouse species.

Those who nominated her described her as “meticulous, attentive, respected, dedicated, exceptionally passionate, hard-working, a phenomenal mentor, highly knowledgeable, and an excellent communicator, innovator, and collaborator.”  

“Charlotte is very deserving of this recognition,” said Jodie Provost. “She will no doubt continue as a scientific force with which to be reckoned, and a shining star in the wildlife profession.”

“I am deeply honored to receive the Dr. Janet Boe Memorial Award,” said Roy. “Janet was an amazing wildlife professional, as are all the former recipients of this award, and to be included among them is both humbling and exciting.”

Ellen Candler received the Student Conservationist Award, presented to a wildlife student at a Minnesota college who has shown high scholastic achievement, and who shows promise as a future wildlife professional. She is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology.

 Among her other qualifications for the award, “her genuine interest in applied wildlife science has resulted in the development of a significant citizen science project, the Offal Wildlife Watching Project, where she has involved over 200 hunters in collecting data and partnered with the Minnesota Master Naturalist program in doing so,” said Dr. Joseph Bump, her Ph.D. adviser. “She is exceedingly dedicated and has a notable sustained volunteer record.”

“I am very honored to receive the Student Conservationist Award from the Minnesota chapter of The Wildlife Society,” said Candler. “Thank you especially to my advisor Dr. Joseph Bump and Dr. William Severud for the nomination as well as the awards committee.”

More information about the Chapter’s awards, including a history of previous winners, can be found on the Chapter’s website:  www.wildlife.org/mn/awards/.

The Minnesota Chapter of The Wildlife Society, organized in 1944, is one of many state and regional chapters of the international conservation organization, The Wildlife Society (www.wildlife.org). The Minnesota chapter’s mission is to inspire, empower and enable wildlife professionals to sustain wildlife populations and habitats through science-based management and conservation in Minnesota.