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A 99 year old doctor from Sequim who was pivotal in stopping both a nuclear plant that was planned for the Miller Peninsula (just west of Cape George) as well as the planned Northern Tier pipeline that was planned to run through the waters off Protection Island, was honored with the Eleanor Stopps annual environmental award. Along with Dr. Eloise Kailin, young Sara Doyle was also a co-recipient, the first time the award was given to two people, and the youngest person to receive it. Doyle has been the Stewardship coordinator for the North Olympic Salmon Coalition. Eleanor Stopps was the woman who worked tirelessly for over a decade to turn Protection Island into a National Wildlife Refuge in 1982.
Read more on the story at the Peninsula Daily News
Dr. Pete Schroeder was awarded the Eleanor Stopps Award for Environmental Leadership this morning at the annual breakfast held by the Port Townsend Marine Science Center.
Dr. Schroeder is a Marine Mammal Veterinarian with the National Marine Mammal Foundation. Throughout his 50 year career studying marine mammals, Dr. Schroeder has improved the lives of these animal through direct veterinarian care, advocacy and education.
He has served as vice president and board member of the North Olympic Land Trust, Friends of the Fields and the North Olympic Salmon Coalition. Additionally, he is a member of the Clallam Conservation Commission, the Dungeness River Management Team, the Steering Committee to the Puget Sound Ecosystem Monitoring Program and as a representative of the Lead Entity Advisory Group to the governor’s Monitoring Forum for salmon recovery and Habitat restoration.
In 2004, Dr. Schroeder was appointed to the Fish and Wildlife Commission by Governor Gary Locke. Dr. Schroeder is currently serving his second term as a member of the Farmland Protection Advisory Committee for the Washington Wildlife and Recreation’s Farmland Preservation Program. Dr. Schroeder led the response to the 2002 stranding of the orca “Hope”. He advised in the collection of the gray whale by the Marine Science Center in May 2016.
In 2013, I interviewed Dr. Schroeder for the video I produced for the Dungeness River Management Team and the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, on restoration of the Dungeness River, called “Working for the River.” You can watch the film and listen to the work that Dr. Schroeder did on behalf of donating his own land into the land trust along the river, to protect habitat.
The 2016 Eleanor Stopps Environmental Leadership Award recognizes significant contributions in the protection and stewardship of our North Olympic Peninsula natural environment. The award pays tribute to Eleanor Stopps whose vision, advocacy and determination exemplify the power and importance of citizen leadership. From the 1960s through the 1990s Eleanor Stopps was an active member of the NW conservation community. Eleanor founded the Admiralty Audubon Chapter and took over the work of Zella Schultz to protect the nesting habitat for 72,000 pairs of seabirds nesting on Protection Island. She was also a tireless educator working with groups of students and Girl Scouts to raise environmental awareness. Eleanor Stopps recognized the need to protect the uniquely important marine environment of the Salish Sea. With no special political base or powerful financial backers she formed a coalition of grassroots supporters who worked to get legislation and public support for protection of Protection Island and the surrounding marine waters. She was a primary driver behind the establishment of the Protection Island National Wildlife Refuge, one of the few established by an Act of Congress at that time. Today, it is a critical habitat link in the preservation of the whole Salish Sea region, providing breeding habitat for Pigeon Guillemots and Rhinoceros Auklets, Bald Eagles and Peregrine Falcons, Harbor Seals and Elephant Seals, and a myriad of other species.
The Eleanor Stopps Environmental Leadership Award is given annually to a citizen of the North Olympic Peninsula (Jefferson and Clallam counties) who has:
Led a successful resource conservation effort that benefits the north Olympic Peninsula and its residents directly;
Acted as a community catalyst for programs, initiatives or ventures that demonstrate a commitment to the future of the earth and its biodiversity;
Become a model for future leaders in business and education; or has been an exemplary citizen or policy maker who has implemented decisions that, though they may entail risks, have helped our communities take the next step towards environmental sustainability.
Other nominees this year included Bob Campbell, Tim McNulty, Dr. Eloise Kailan, Ron Sikes and Dr. Schroeder. It was a very difficult decision for the nominating committee, as each of these individuals have been very successful in their careers here on the Peninsula. Nominations are allowed in subsequent years for any supporters of these nominees that wish to re-nominate.
Jude Rubin has been awarded the Eleanor Stopps Environmental Award. Eleanor was once named “Citizen of the Century” by Jefferson County, the only person ever to receive that title, for her tireless work to protect Protection Island. The Eleanor Stopps Environmental Leadership Award is awarded annually to a citizen of the North Olympic Peninsula (Jefferson and Clallam Counties) who has: 1. Led a successful resource conservation effort that benefits the north Olympic Peninsula and its residents directly. 2. Acted as a community catalyst for programs, initiatives or ventures that demonstrate a commitment to the future of the earth and its biodiversity 3. Become a model for future leaders, educators, or has been an exemplary citizen or policy maker who has implemented decisions that, through they may entail risks, help our communities take the next step towards environmental sustainability.
Jude took on the very difficult issue of banning plastic bags in Port Townsend, which has been a source of landfill garbage and also a product that finds it’s way into waterways around the world. Jude’s humor and character “the bag monster” brought home the issue in a non threatening way, pushed the ban over the top with voters. But she’s more than that one issue. She was the founding member of the NW Watershed Institute, and was also the founder of Shooting Star Farm, which produces locally grown food. In 1996, she co-wrote the Chimacum Watershed Coho Salmon Restoration Assessment (1996)
Jude as bag lady, and Janine Boire the Executive Director of the PT Marine Science Center. (photo by Al Bergstein)
Over a decade ago, Jude Rubin was listening to school fund raising ideas at a parent’s meeting and thought, “If children can wash cars and sell magazine subscriptions, why not sell honorary tree cards and plant trees to raise money?” Nearly every winter since, over 150 students, teachers and parents from five local schools plant about 3,000 native trees and shrubs at salmon restoration sites prepared by Northwest Watershed Institute along Tarboo Creek. Before the planting event, Jude, in her role as Stewardship Director with Northwest Watershed Institute, meets with the children in classrooms throughout Jefferson County to help them understand the critical role that temperate rainforests play in sustaining salmon habitat. Prior to the big planting event, families sell honorary tree cards. Each card represents a tree to be planted in someone’s honor or memory. 100% of the money from the card sales goes to the schools because Jude and NWI work all year to raise grant funds and in‐kind contributions to cover the cost of the project. For many students, the Plant-‐A-‐Thon has served as a strong influence in their growth as environmental stewards and leaders. Thanks to the collaborative efforts over the years led by Jude, 2015 marked the 10th annual Plant-‐A-‐Thon, with a total of more than 33,000 trees planted to date, well over $150,000 raised for schools, and hundreds of children and parents gaining greater appreciation for watershed ecology and environmental service.
Jude is also well known as the “Bag Monster.“ In 2012, she took City Hall by storm with her humor and ensured a swift approval of the groundbreaking Port Townsend plastic bag ban. In the Bag Ban effort, Jude coordinated the efforts of five partnering organizations, and stepped into the public limelight to represent the campaign as “The Bag Monster,” addressing the City Council three times in a costume made of 500 disposable bags. Partly due to Jude’s persistent approach, the plastic bag ban was implemented in just seven-‐months – one of the fastest adoptions of a bag ban proposal by any city in the country. In costume at City Council meetings, she was a force to be reckoned with.
Jude’s was instrumental in co-‐ founding Northwest Watershed Institute in 2001 and serving as the Stewardship Director since 2004. Over the past eleven years she has worked effectively as a scientific researcher, project manager, visiting classroom teacher, fund-‐raiser, and has been instrumental in NWI’s nationally recognized conservation achievements. Jude’s grant writing skills, environmental and community outreach abilities, and her knowledge as a botanist and ecologist have helped NWI and many project partners to protect and restore over 4,000 acres in the Tarboo watershed, including critical stream and wetland habitat along Tarboo Creek and in Dabob Bay. Visit http://www.nwwatershed.org for more information on the landscape scale Tarboo Watershed project and other NWI achievements. Jude’s environmental achievements are a continuation of a life long commitment to the environment.
She graduated from Brown University in 1988 with a B.S. in Environmental Studies, and earned an M.S. in 1995 as both a Switzer Fellow and an R.K Mellon Fellow through the Field Naturalist Program at the University of Vermont. In the early 1990’s Jude helped launch a highly successful organic gardening education campaign in Seattle, and later worked for the Nature Conservancy in Oregon on native plant seed banking, and then at River Network as a project manager and Senior Grant Writer. In 1996, she co-‐authored, with Peter Bahls, the Chimacum Watershed Coho Salmon Restoration Assessment as her graduate thesis, and this work provided the scientific justification for the initial $2 million raised for Chimacum salmon habitat protection and restoration.
(By Al Bergstein and Fayette Krause)
___________________________________
Judith “Jude” Rubin, who has worked in support of a variety of environmental causes, is this year’s recipient of the Eleanor Stopps Environmental Leadership Award. “On behalf of the many hundreds of people who collaborated on these important projects, I am deeply honored to accept this award,” Rubin, 50, said Thursday. Rubin’s selection for the 11th annual award was announced at a Wednesday breakfast at Fort Worden State Park. Charlie Bermant reports. (Peninsula Daily News)
Filed under: Environmental Activism | Tagged: award, eleanor stopps | Comments Off on ‘Bag Monster’ conservation leader recognized with Eleanor Stopps Environmental Leadership Award in Port Townsend – PDN
Ray Lowrie was presented with the 10th annual Eleanor Stopps Environmental Leadership Award on Oct. 1.
“I had no clue that anything like this would ever happen,” said Lowrie, who taught at Chimacum School from 1960 to 1992.
About 165 people attended the Stewardship Breakfast in the Fort Worden Commons, where Lowrie was presented with the award by Janine Boire, executive director of the Port Townsend Marine Science Center (PTMSC). Attendees donated $25,160 at the breakfast, and an anonymous donor provided a $25,000 challenge match for a total of $50,160 raised, said Liesl Strabagh of the PTMSC.
If you have a person you want to nominate, please do so soon.
The Port Townsend Marine Science Center is seeking nominations for the 2014 Eleanor Stopps Environmental Leadership Award. This award recognizes significant contributions in the protection and stewardship of our North Olympic Peninsula natural environment. The award pays tribute to Eleanor Stopps whose vision, advocacy and determination exemplify the power and importance of citizen leadership.
From the 1960s through the 1990s Eleanor Stopps was an active member of the NW conservation community. Eleanor founded the Admiralty Audubon Chapter and took over the work of Zella Schultz to protect the nesting habitat for 72,000 pairs of seabirds nesting on Protection Island. She was also a tireless educator working with groups of students and Girl Scouts to raise environmental awareness. Eleanor Stopps recognized the need to protect the uniquely important marine environment of theSalish Sea. With no special political base or powerful financial backers she formed a coalition of grassroots supporters who worked to get legislation and public support for protection of Protection Island and the surrounding marine waters. She was a primary driver behind the establishment of the Protection Island National Wildlife Refuge, one of the few established by an Act of
Congress at that time. Today, it is a critical habitat link in the preservation of the whole Salish Sea region, providing breeding habitat for Pigeon Guillemots and Rhinoceros Auklets Bald Eagles and Peregrine Falcons, Harbor Seals and Elephant Seals and a myriad of other species.
The Eleanor Stopps Environmental Leadership Award is given annually to a citizen of the North Olympic Peninsula (Jefferson and Clallam counties) who has:
Led a successful resource conservation effort that benefits the north Olympic Peninsula and its residents directly;
Acted as a community catalyst for programs, initiatives or ventures that demonstrate a commitment to the future of
the earth and its biodiversity;
Become a model for future leaders in business and education; or has been an exemplary citizen or policy maker who
has implemented decisions that, though they may entail risks, have helped our communities take the next step
towards environmental sustainability.
Port Townsend Marine Science Center is pleased to sponsor this award and invites nominations so we can continue to recognize positive leadership. You may nominate someone by downloading the nomination form from http://www.ptmsc.org, info@ptmsc.org or calling (360) 385-5582 and requesting a form.
NOMINATIONS MUST BE SUBMITTED BY EMAIL OR BE RECEIVED IN THE
PTMSC OFFICES AT FORT WORDEN BY 5:00 PM AUGUST 27
Winner(s) will be honored at the PTMSC Stewardship Breakfast at the Fort Worden Commons at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, October 1, 2014.
Previous winners include: 2005: Katharine Baril, natural resource educator and planner Washington State University; 2006: Anne Murphy, Executive Director, Port Townsend Marine Science Center; 2007: Tom Jay and Sara Mall Johani, artists and environmentalists; 2008: Al Latham, Jefferson County Conservation District Ranger; 2009: Peter Bahls, NW Watershed Institute; 2010: Sarah Spaeth, Executive Director, Jefferson Land Trust; 2011: Dick & Marie Goins, lifelong Olympic Peninsula salmon habitat restoration activists; 2012: Judith Alexander, community catalyst for NW Earth Institute, Local 20/20, and EarthDay EveryDay; 2013:Rebecca Benjamin, Executive Director, North Olympic Salmon Coalition.
The Port Townsend Marine Science Center is seeking nominations for the 2012 Eleanor Stopps Environmental Leadership Award. The award recognizes people on the North Olympic Peninsula who are stewards of the environment and have demonstrated leadership in efforts to protect the natural world. More at:
Seeking Nominations for the 2012
Eleanor Stopps Environmental Leadership Award
The Port Townsend Marine Science Center is seeking nominations for the 2012 Eleanor Stopps Environmental Leadership Award. This award recognizes significant contributions in the protection and stewardship of our North Olympic Peninsula natural environment. The award pays tribute to Eleanor Stopps whose vision, advocacy and determination exemplify the power and importance of citizen leadership.
In the 1960s and 70s she recognized the need to protect the uniquely important marine environment of the Salish Sea. With no special political base or powerful financial backers she testified before the Washington State Legislature and the United States Congress and was instrumental in getting legislation and public support for protection of the area. She was responsible for the establishment of the Protection Island Sanctuary, which was the only refuge created during the Reagan administration. Today, it is a critical link in the preservation of the whole Salish Sea region.
The Eleanor Stopps Environmental Leadership Award is awarded annually to a citizen of the North Olympic Peninsula (Jefferson and Clallam counties) who has:
Led a successful resource conservation effort that benefits the north Olympic Peninsula and its residents directly;
Acted as a community catalyst for programs, initiatives or ventures that demonstrate a commitment to the future of the earth and its biodiversity;
Become a model for future leaders in business and education; or has been an exemplary citizen or policy maker who has implemented decisions that, though they may entail risks, have helped our communities take the next step towards environmental sustainability.
Port Townsend Marine Science Center is pleased to sponsor this award and invites nominations so we can continue to recognize positive leadership. You may nominate someone by downloading the nomination form from http://www.ptmsc.org, info@ptmsc.org or calling (360) 385-5582 and requesting a form.
NOMINATIONS MUST BE SUBMITTED BY EMAIL OR BE RECEIVED IN THE
PTMSC OFFICES AT FORT WORDEN BY 5:00 PM AUGUST 31st, 2012.
Winner(s) will be honored at the PTMSC Stewardship Breakfast at the
Fort Worden Commons at 8 a.m. on Thursday, October 4, 2012.
Previous winners include: 2005: Katharine Baril, natural resource educator and planner Washington State University; 2006: Anne Murphy, Executive Director, Port Townsend Marine Science Center; 2007: Tom Jay and Sara Mall Johani, artists and environmentalists; 2008: Al Latham, Jefferson County Conservation District Ranger; 2009: Peter Bahls, NW Watershed Institute; 2010: Sarah Spaeth, Executive Director, Jefferson Land Trust; 2011: Dick & Marie Goin, lifelong Olympic Peninsula salmon habitat restoration activists
Admiralty Audubon has established an account at First Federal Bank for donations that will fund a sculpture in honor of Eleanor Stopps and in tribute to Protection Island National Wildlife Refuge. There is a PayPal button to the right that is linked to the account at eleanorstopps.blogspot.com and it accepts credit cards. Checks can be sent directly to the bank. Donations should be made out to: AAS Memorial Fund (or Admiralty Audubon Society Memorial Fund) and be sent to: First Federal Bank PO Box 1510 Port Townsend WA 98368 Admiralty Audubon is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by the IRS code.
Eleanor Stopps passed away today, after a short illness. She was attended to by hospice. I think it time we brought out the unpublished interview Mountainstone Productions shot of her as part of “Voices of the Strait”. Video will follow, but takes quite a bit longer to get right.
Eleanor talks about her life, and how she came to protect Protection Island. Interview by Betsy Wharton and Jo Anne Bailey.
Downloads allowed. However, no commercial use of this audio track is allowed without written permission. Please contact mountainstoneproductions AT gmail.com for use questions (replace the AT with @ as usual)
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