Awards
Distinguished Service Award
Suzanne Case
Since 1997 the Hawai’i Conservation Alliance has recognized persons reaching the highest esteem within the conservation community. These persons are nominated by their peers. The award honors exceptional service, personal effort and unselfish interest, embodying long-term dedication and tenacity in environmental conservation for the Hawaiian Islands.
Legacy Award
Wayne Gagne
In 2017, the HCA established an award to recognize early pioneers in modern conservation in Hawaiʻi. Typically, these are people who laid the groundwork to establish conservation programs, create environmental education and advocacy efforts, and mentor conservation practitioners and leaders. Our current senior conservation leadership often mentions these early individuals as the reason for their commitment to conservation in Hawaiʻi, and they, and the programs that exist today, are in large part the legacy of these early workers. The current generation of conservation practitioners and students often have never heard of these figures, so this is an opportunity to recognize the important role they played in conservation in Hawaiʻi. This is a posthumous award.
Conservation Innovation Award
Rapid Ohiʻa Death (ROD) Working Group
Starting in July 2006, the HCA has granted the Conservation Innovation Awards for new technologies or techniques used in conservation activities in the islands. This recognition is given to the instigators or champions of a procedure that leads to significant advances to the structure or nature of environmental conservation in Hawai‘i. Examples of such procedures may be the creating of legislation that changes the dynamics of natural resource management, or programs that lead to significant better protection of the Hawaii’s native ecosystems.
Outstanding Leadership Award
Pacific Internship Programs for Exploring Sciences (PIPES)
Since 2007, this award is given to a person who has demonstrated exceptional leadership in advancing environmental conservation in Hawai‘i over the short to medium term (several years to a decade). Examples of such leadership may be seen in creating avenues for rapid advancement in conservation through influencing natural resource management or programs that lead to significant better protection of Hawai‘i’s native ecosystems.
Student Awards
Mahalo to The Wildlife Society Hawaiʻi Chapter for sponsoring our Student Awards including both undergraduate and graduate categories for poster and oral presentations. Students are critical to bringing new and innovative tools into conservation efforts in Hawaiʻi and we are truly grateful for them to share out their hard work. Congratulations to all our student award winners!
Outstanding Graduate Student Oral Presentation
Hannah Moon
How do seabirds see light? Spectral effects on the temporal sensitivity of Kauaʻi’s seabirds
Honorable Mention Graduate Student Oral Presentation
Koa Matsuoka
Beginning to re-establish a Palila population on northern Mauna Kea
Outstanding Undergraduate Student Oral Presentation
Alexandra Sage Reininger
Spatial distribution of green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) nests at French Frigate Shoals, Hawaii: Implications for carrying capacity?
Honorable Mention Undergraduate Student Oral Presentation
Cameryn Rae Kahalewai
The Effect of Ungulate Fencing, Salt Spray, and Soil Type on the Coastal Plant Distribution and Abundance on the Kalaupapa Peninsula, Molokai
Outstanding Graduate Student Poster Presentation
Emmett Michael Henley
Coping with the stress: physiological differences in reproduction of M. flabellata versus M. Capitata
Honorable Mention Graduate Student Poster Presentation
Nick Kawelakai Farrant
I Paʻa Hou i Kalou: Re-Mapping Historic Loko Wai and Loʻi Kalo of Waialeʻe, Oʻahu
Outstanding Undergraduate Student Poster Presentation
Keanu Rochette-Yu
Testing the protective effect of the juice of the Scaevola taccada on yeast against UV radiation
Honorable Mention Undergraduate Student Poster Presentation
Matthew Dye
Restoration strategies for out-planting at marginalized coastal leeward landscapes on Hawaii Island
