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Natural Resources Council of Maine

Protecting the Nature of Maine

Conservation Leadership Awards

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NRCM Conservation Leadership Awards

Maine is known and loved for its beautiful lands, lakes, rivers, and coastline—and we owe a lot to the individuals who have helped protect these natural resources. Each year, the Natural Resources Council of Maine recognizes several of those who have made significant, lasting contributions to safeguarding Maine's environment by presenting them with a Conservation Leadership Award. As part of our Conservation Leadership Awards, we include an award that is given to a person or people who are nominated and voted on by NRCM members and the public, our People's Choice Award.

The 2019 Conservation Leadership Awards were presented on Wednesday, October 16, 2019 in Portland.

2019 Conservation Leadership Award winners

2019 Conservation Leadership Award recipients, pictured from L to R: Front Row: Aimee Ishimwe of SolaRISE, Jon Lund (Lifetime Achievement), Sandi Howard (People's Choice Award) Back Row: Liz Caruso, Yusur Jasmin of SolaRISE, Siri Pierce of SolaRISE, Lucia Daranyi of SolaRISE, and NRCM CEO Lisa Pohlmann

In 2019 we honored:

  • Jon Lund (Hallowell), Lifetime Achievement Award, for his decades of service to Maine’s environment and his advocacy for the restoration of Maine’s rivers and native fisheries
  • Liz Caruso (Caratunk) for tireless advocacy in her community and across the state against the proposed CMP transmission line
  • SolaRISE (Portland) for being a strong, successful coalition of students and staff from Casco Bay, Deering, and Portland high schools advocating for providing solar energy to Portland schools
  • Sandi Howard (Caratunk), People’s Choice Award winner, for her dedication to administering the Say NO to NECEC Facebook group and organizing one of the groups of intervenors in the CMP corridor proceedings at the Department of Environmental Protection and the Land Use Planning Commission

Read remarks from some of the evening's award recipients:

NRCM also recently spoke with members of SolaRise for an edition of our "Frontline Voices" podcast. Listen to the podcast.

Past Conservation Leadership Awards