PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend Marine Science Center is seeking nominations for the 2013 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.
Nominations must be submitted to the marine science center before 5 p.m. Aug. 31.
The winner and runners-up will be honored at the marine science center’s Stewardship Breakfast at the Fort Worden Commons at 8 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 3.
Named for Stopps
Stopps, who died of cancer in April at the age of 92, was responsible for the 1982 establishment of the Protection Island National Wildlife Refuge, the only refuge created during the Reagan administration.
With no special political base or powerful financial backers, Stopps, who was a housewife and mother, testified before the state Legislature and the U.S. Congress and persuaded Congress through letter-writing and lobbying over a decade to grant Protection Island national wildlife refuge status.
“Today, it is a critical link in the preservation of the whole Salish Sea region,” the marine science center said in a statement.
More than 75 percent of the seabirds that nest in the state, excluding the Pacific coast, make the island near the mouth of Discovery Bay in the Strait of Juan de Fuca their home.
The island has one of the last two nesting colonies of tufted puffins in the Puget Sound area.
Since 2005, Stopps’ legacy of citizen leadership has been recognized through the annual award.
Previous winners by year are:
■ 2005: Katharine Baril, who was then a natural resource educator and planner for Washington State University.
■ 2006: Anne Murphy, then the executive director of the 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, Northwest Watershed Institute director.
■ 2010: Sarah Spaeth, executive director, Jefferson Land Trust.
■ 2011: Dick and Marie Goin of Port Angeles, for their involvement in salmon restoration projects across the Peninsula and in Olympic National Park.
■ 2012: Judith Alexander, community catalyst for Northwest Earth Institute, Local 20/20 and EarthDay EveryDay.
For more information and to get nomination forms, contact Brian Kay at info@ptmsc.org or 360-385-5582.
The form also can be downloaded at www.ptmsc.org.
Nominations must be received by email to info@ptmsc.org or by delivering it or mailing it to the Port Townsend Marine Science Center, 532 Battery Way, Port Townsend, WA 98368.
For more about the marine life center, visit www.ptmsc.org.
