Last updated: January 19, 2023
Article
2021 Director's Awards for Natural and Cultural Resources
NPS Photo
The Natural and Cultural Resource Awards Programs recognize the outstanding contributions of National Park Service staff in understanding, protecting, and managing park resources and in lands adjacent. Awardees are selected annually in a spring call for nominations and honored bi-annually.
Award recipients come from across the country and US territories and represent the diversity in landscapes in the National Park System.
The National Park Service’s Natural Resource Stewardship and Science and the Cultural Resources, Partnerships, and Science accomplishments are communicated widely through the Director’s Awards ceremony. These awards celebrate individuals in variety of categories.
Recipients for the 2021 year are below. National Park Service Director Chuck Sams conferred their award win in a ceremony in Washington, D.C., October 2022. Congrats to the winners!
Awards in Cultural Resources
The Director’s Awards for Cultural Resources—also known as the Appleman-Judd-Lewis Awards—recognize expertise and outstanding contributions in cultural resource stewardship and management, to employees of the National Park Service. The three awards were created to encourage creativity in cultural resource stewardship and management practices and projects, particularly those that may serve as examples or models for programs across the service.
NPS Photo
Excellence in Cultural Resource Stewardship by Superintendents: Craig Kenkel
Point Reyes National Seashore Superintendent Craig Kenkel exemplified leadership in the National Park Service in developing a General Agreement for a Government-to-Government Partnership with the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria in the management and stewardship of federal lands within Tribal ancestral territories administered by Point Reyes National Seashore. Signed in 2021, it represents a significant accomplishment in cultural resource stewardship as well as in the broader responsibilities for consultation and collaboration with Tribal partners. The agreement focuses on developing designations for Traditional Cultural Properties eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, establishing processes for archeological site assessments and monitoring, and ensuring that Tribal views and traditional ecological knowledge are part of the management of tule elk and the ranching lands in the national seashore. In developing this agreement, Superintendent Kenkel helped his management team embrace collaboration with the Tribe as the key to successful management of park lands and addressing the Tribe’s concerns about confidentiality of information. The agreement with the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria has the potential to improve cultural resource stewardship and management practices at Point Reyes National Seashore as well as serve as a model for similar outcomes in other parks. For this accomplishment, Craig Kenkel is granted the 2021 Appleman-Judd-Lewis Award for expertise and outstanding contributions to cultural resources stewardship and management by a superintendent.
NPS Photo
Excellence in Cultural Resource Stewardship Through Maintenance: Chris Buczko
Chris Buczko deployed a comprehensive and integrated process to broker constructive agreements between many key stakeholders and the State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPO) related to planning and rehabilitation of the Charles Young home at Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Historical Site. Mr. Buczko identified and anticipated challenges, devised creative alternatives, and orchestrated consensus-based solutions to protect the architectural legacy and values associated with the Charles Young home. His work represents excellence in creative problem solving and cross-discipline communication to achieve outcomes that characterize our aspirations as an agency. In the early planning stages, Mr. Buczko took the innovative step of arranging a meeting between the regional National Historic Preservation Act Section 106 coordinator and the Ohio SHPO to define SHPO’s parameters to avoid an adverse effect to the property. He then worked to broker an agreement with the SHPO in which the National Park Service declared its intention to seek a 'No Adverse Effect' determination throughout the rehabilitation. SHPO staff were invited to attend early design meetings and comment on schematic drawings. The SHPO was impressed with his approach, stating that it was a model for how federal and state agencies could work together, coordinating reviews to move beyond pro forma consultation toward meaningful collaboration. Mr. Buczko was asked to share his methodology and project planning framework through a Servicewide Section 106 training module for NPS cultural resource staff to better advocate for cultural resource preservation. The Charles Young home project was identified by Washington Support Office Learning and Development as a model for how facility managers and cultural resource staff could achieve optimal collaboration, and their staff produced a video about the success of the Charles Young Home rehabilitation to highlight the collaborative approach and incorporate these lessons in the new nationwide Section 106 training. For his efforts, Chris Buczko, is granted the 2021 Appleman-Judd-Lewis Award for expertise and outstanding contributions to cultural resources stewardship and management by a facility maintenance specialist.
NPS Photo
Excellence in Cultural Resource Management: Kate Hanson Plass
Archivist Kate Hanson Plass made exceptional contributions to cultural resource stewardship at Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site in 2021. Working closely with the site’s Volunteers-in-Parks Program coordinator, Ms. Hanson Plass expanded the design and development of the Virtual Transcriber Program, working with volunteers from across the country to transcribe historic documents, puzzling out 19th century handwriting. As the Covid pandemic progressed, she recruited new volunteers working remotely and significantly broadened the demographics of the volunteer cohort, from mostly retirees to volunteers that included college students, families with young kids, and working professionals. To ensure high-quality transcriptions, Ms. Hanson Plass worked closely with individual volunteers, sending drafts, notes, and questions back and forth by email. As interest in the program grew, she created a virtual forum in Microsoft Teams that enabled her to increase the number of historic documents transcribed, engage more volunteers, and introduce peer-to-peer support to review volunteers’ work. Her work on the Virtual Transcriber Program was featured in the 2021 National Park Service Citizen Science Congressional Report as a best practice that demonstrated exceptional adaptability during the Covid pandemic. Her work has served as a model for others within the National Park Service and beyond. For this accomplishment, Kate Hanson Plass is granted the 2021 Appleman-Judd-Lewis award for expertise and outstanding contributions to cultural resources stewardship and management by a cultural resource specialist.
Awards in Natural Resources
NPS Photo
Natural Resource Management: Kristy Boscheinen
This award recognizes an employee for their significant contribution to natural resource management in parks, particularly a contribution that resulted in the adoption of a new or improved resource management practice and/or approach by the National Park Service.
As a supervisory natural resource specialist, Ms. Kristy Boscheinen is dedicated to park natural resources and their management. Knowledge of the recreation area’s natural resources is the baseline from which she led this complex project to restore areas disturbed by power line construction. Successfully leading the project required her expertise as the park’s lead on compliance issues, its historic buildings strategy and the overall mitigation fund. Additionally, this project was a legal requirement for the Susquehanna-Roseland Transmission line and needed to be implemented on an aggressive time schedule, while still ensuring that the goals were met in a scientifically valid manner that would achieve the highest benefit for the park and park visitors. The selection of the Watergate area was particularly important as the Van Campens Brook is the only fully encapsulated watershed within the park in New Jersey. By restoring the wetland in this area, the park will see a lowering of temperature in the upper part of the watershed, affecting all species further down the creek. To highlight just one area of project complexity, because of manipulation of the landscape, tons of spoils need to be removed from the site. Ms. Boscheinen saved money, time, and solved a safety issue by using the fill in a nearby former quarry site. For her dedication to restoration of critical wetlands that required working with partners, moving smartly through a complicated and nuanced list of permits, species restrictions, visitor concerns and construction needs, Ms. Kristy Boscheinen is awarded the 2021 Director’s Natural Resource Stewardship Award Through Management.
NPS Photo
Natural Resource Research: Jonathan A. O'Donnell
This award recognizes a federal employee or non-federal researcher for their outstanding contributions to natural resource research benefiting national parks.
In recognition for his contribution of five, coauthored peer reviewed publications, three technical reports, eight scientific presentations, and co-led six active research grants in 2021. Mr. Jonathan A. O'Donnell's efforts, focused on permafrost and how permafrost degradation impacts terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems underpinnings that have allowed aquatic ecologist him to investigate pathways of ancient carbon into arctic aquatic food webs, changes in stream hydrology associated with vegetation changes related to a warming climate, changes in stream temperature, and carbon storage and release in northern environments. His detailed work with the Arctic Network Inventory and Monitoring Program informs on the changing climate and its potential effects on the Earth and parks of the National Park System. His work is collaborative and that lets him develop additive research proposals that leverage his existing work and lead him to investigate other related areas of research such as paleoclimates, fire ecology, shifts in distribution of boreal mammal species into tundra areas and the timing of when people arrived in North America. The collaborative spirit led him to coauthor more than 40 peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters, 17 technical reports, and more than 60 scientific presentations. He successfully competes for research grants as a co-principal investigator with 10 multi-year grants through the National Science Foundation, United States Geological Survey, United States Department of Agriculture, National Park Service, and Brown University. He has, since 2021, coauthored five peer reviewed publications, three technical reports, eight scientific presentations, and co-leads six active research grants. Because his work has contributed greatly to the scientific community and the understanding of the environmental changes occurring in Arctic parks, and the global consequences of melting permafrost on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, Jonathan A. O’Donnell is granted the 2021 Director’s Award for Natural Resource Research.
NPS Photo
Professional Excellence in Natural Resource Stewardship: Christy Brigham, Ph.D.
This award recognizes an individual who significantly contributes to resource management successes by employing a high degree of technical excellence in a narrowly focused, professional role.
As the Chief of Resources Management and Science at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, Dr. Christy Brigham is an accomplished, respected scientist and a highly effective ambassador for the National Park Service and conservation efforts. In 2021, when the Castle Fire took thousands of mature giant sequoias, each of which had survived dozens of fires, drought and insect attack over millennia, she co-founded the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition, which is comprised of 12 Federal, Tribal, State, local and NGO land stewards of giant sequoias who are supported by more than a dozen other affiliate organizations. In addition, she brought the story of sequoias and the Castle Fire disaster to the public through dozens of television, radio, and print media interviews, and National Park Service communications outreach. She is a recognized leader in identification and implementation of critical research and monitoring, identifying mitigation actions, securing funding, and raising public and stakeholder awareness. She has helped to make the sequoia an iconic illustration of climate change effects and the need to make western forests more resilient to fire. As Fiscal Year 2021 began at the height of the Castle Fire, it ended at the height of the KNP Complex Fire and, unfortunately, proved that the previous season’s fire was not a one-off. Christy led unprecedented actions during that fire which resulted in saving significant numbers of the giant trees. Her talents and passion for natural resources align with emerging threats of unprecedented consequence to those same resources. She is in the right place at the right time for making a real difference in the stewardship of public lands across the entire Sierra Nevada range and is granted the Director’s 2021 Award for Excellence in Natural Resource Stewardship.
NPS Photo
Excellence in Natural Resource Stewardship Through Maintenance: Matthew Snider
This award recognizes an employee for outstanding contributions in natural resource management by a Facilities Management employee.
Trails Program Supervisor Matthew Snider leads a small crew that evacuates composted human waste from 28 remote facilities dispersed throughout the park. The work comes with significant challenges to coordinate and execute a schedule to provide cleaning coverage for 362 days of the year. He and his team hike an average of seven or more miles a day to reach the toilet facilities. They work in a variety of weather conditions with temperatures ranging from 118 degrees to below zero Fahrenheit. The evacuation of human compost is unlike any other endeavor in the National Park Service. These stalwart employees don a full body Tyvek suit, tape on extra booties to their feet, wear heavy duty nitrile gloves under thick rubber gloves, wear a set of goggles, and a face mask. They evacuate the contents of the composting tanks by shovel and pitchfork into 55-gallon barrels. The park helicopter is used to fly the drums out of the canyon to the South Rim helicopter base. They are later hauled to a Flagstaff, Arizona, recycling facility and eventually to nursery gardens. If these composting toilets were not maintained for visitor and employee use, the inner canyon would be irreversibly damaged by human waste. The compost crew removed 22 tons of human compost in 2021, an outstanding though easily overlooked accomplishment that requires considerable effort to lead, coordinate, and retain the compost crew members. Because these day-to-day operations of the compost crew are crucial to the mission of providing for visitor enjoyment and are an invaluable part of preserving the outstanding resource that is Grand Canyon National Park, Matthew Snider is granted the 2021 Director’s Award for Excellence in Natural Resource Stewardship through Maintenance.
NPS Photo
Natural Resource Management in a Small Park: Lindsey D. Donaldson
This award rewards achievements in natural resource management in small parks.
As the Chief of Resource Management at the park, Ms. Lindsey D. Donaldson has shown an unwavering focus on park resources, including management of the park’s white tailed deer population. The herd emerged as a critical issue in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when research showed that its population presented an existential threat to the secondary growth forest that covers 90 percent of the park. The deer fed on the seedlings and saplings that support regrowth of tree species comprising the forest canopy. Intervention was needed to reduce the number of deer in the park. Lindsey was hired to address the issue, and more than a decade later, her sustained success has led to a 13-fold increase in the density of tree seedlings found in the park. During her tenure, she has surmounted numerous obstacles and kept the park at the vanguard of white-tailed deer management. Her signature approach is to remain adaptive, innovative, and inclusive. The results of her work represent a secure future for Catoctin Mountain Park and serve as an inspirational example for other parks and a case study to support wildlife control efforts across the National Park Service. She goes beyond example with assistance to other parks in the region. She supports her colleagues in development of operations and safety plans, in setting up equipment and planning operations, and in developing agreements and working relationships with United States Department of Agriculture cooperators. She is a leader in these areas because she knows the long-term value the work provides to park resources, at Catoctin and in other parks, where her work shapes deer management issues. She continues to lead with a forward-thinking approach that doesn't duck challenges or shy away from risk and, ultimately, is underpinned by a clear recognition that the work is only important if it is sustained over time. For her success in ensuring the long-term health of the park’s forest and contributions to deer management programs elsewhere in the National Park Service, Ms. Lindsey D. Donaldson is granted the 2021 Director’s Award for Natural Resource Management in a Small Park.
NPS Photo
Superintendent of the Year for Natural Resource Stewardship: Steven N. Mietz
This award recognizes a Superintendent for their outstanding contributions, creative leadership, and direction and support in natural resource management.
Steven N. Mietz arrived as superintendent of Redwoods National Park in 2017, facing significant natural resource management challenges. He embraced Redwoods Rising, a partnership between the National Park Service, California State Parks, and the non-profit Save the Redwoods League to implement landscape-scale watershed restoration. Through his tenacity, hard work, and ability to work with partners, watershed restoration is underway across 35,000 acres of park land. He has used innovative approaches to work in collaboration to contract, hire, support, and fund various aspects of this large restoration program. Additionally, he has presided over the park's California Condor program in close partnership with the Yurok Tribe and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The condors arrived on March 24, 2022 – a seminal moment in the park's history with deep meaning for the Yurok people. The birds’ arrival reestablishes a population of California condors in the Pacific Northwest for the first time since 1933. He has also been instrumental in helping guide and inform a Caltrans-led project to construct a US Highway 101 bypass in the park that avoids or minimizes impacts to old growth redwoods and park resources and instrumental in supporting a collaborative with private landowners and other agencies seeking to restore the highly degraded Redwood Creek estuary. The estuary was gutted by the 1968 construction of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood control levees that extended directly into the estuary. Restoration of the Redwood Creek estuary has been a park goal since the 1980s. Other efforts brought about the 2016 acquisition of a 125-acre former redwood logging mill site that will be restored to its natural state and provide a trails gateway for visitors to self-orient to the park's southern district. This site restoration will also improve habitat for listed salmon species. For dedication to the park and to work on these projects, Steven N. Mietz is awarded the 2021 Director’s Natural Resource Award for Superintendent of the Year.