S.C. Environmental Awareness award nominations sought

By S.C. Dept. of Natural Resources

Published: October 13, 2009

Nominations will be accepted through Friday, Dec. 18 for an award to recognize South Carolinians who are doing extraordinary work for the natural environment. Guidelines and nomination forms for the S.C. Environmental Awareness Award are available at http://www.scdhec.gov/environment/admin/envawareness/envawards.htm, or contact Robin Stephens at the S.C. Department of Environment Control (DHEC) at (803) 896-8973, or e-mail her at: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
The S.C. General Assembly established the S.C. Environmental Awareness Award, now in its 18th year, during the 1992 legislative session to recognize outstanding contributions made toward the protection, conservation and improvement of South Carolina’s natural resources.
Each year the public is invited to submit nominations that are then reviewed by an awards committee, which includes representatives from the state’s environmental and natural resource agencies. In judging nominees, the committee considers excellence in innovation, leadership and accomplishments that influence positive changes affecting the natural environment.
Members of the awards committee represent the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, S.C. Forestry Commission, S.C. Sea Grant Consortium and DHEC.
Benjamin T. “Ben” Zeigler, a shareholder of Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd, P.A., where he practices public finance law in the firm’s Florence office, won the 2008 S.C. Environmental Awareness Award. Zeigler completed two consecutive terms (2004-2008) as Chairman of the Board of the Pee Dee Land Trust.  During his tenure on the Board, Ben built unprecedented community support for natural resource protection throughout the Pee Dee region.

Previous award winners include:

2008 - Benjamin T. “Ben” Zeigler
2006 – Rick Huffman, founder, South Carolina Native Plant Society
2003 – Burris Family, owners, Cypress Bay Plantation Tree Farm, Beaufort
2002 – Dr. Jack Turner, director, Watershed Ecology Center, University of South Carolina
2001 – James D. Elliott Jr., founder, South Carolina Center for Birds of Prey
1998 – Yancey A. McLeod Jr., environmental educator, Eastover
1997 – Brad Wyche, president, Friends of the Reedy River, Greenville
1995 – Dr. Whitfield Gibbons, senior research ecologist, Savannah River Ecology Laboratory
1994 – Marion Burnside, chairman, S.C. Department of Natural Resources
1992 – Rudy Mancke, naturalist, S.C. Educational Television
DNR protects and manages South Carolina’s natural resources by making wise and balanced decisions for the benefit of the state’s natural resources and its people. Find out more about DNR at http://www.dnr.sc.gov.