Excellence in Journalism Award

RNRF's Excellence in Journalism Award, established in 2001, honors and encourages excellence in print journalism about natural resources. RNRF seeks to advance public education and understanding of important natural resource issues through the dissemination of accurate and scientifically-based information about the environment. The award recognizes work by an individual, group, or organization for both print and digital media (such as an online report, or article/feature in a newspaper, magazine, journal, or newsletter). General interest books and online videos, documentaries, and podcasts are not eligible.

Excellence in Journalism Award Recipients

2022 – “Will this court case end the mining industry’s 150-year dominance of the West? One legal loophole might change everything” by Elizabeth Royte, freelance journalist, published in Mother Jones

2021 – “Absent Wolves, Ecosystems Changed. Can New Wolves Restore Things?” by Sharon Levy, freelance journalist, published in Undark

2020 – “Concrete: The most destructive material on Earth,” by Jonathan Watts, The Guardian

2019 – “Sponge City Revolution: Restoring natural water flows in cities can lessen the impacts of floods and droughts,” by Erica Gies, freelance journalist, published in Scientific American

2018 – “Saving America’s Broken Prairie” by David J. Unger, freelance journalist, published in Undark

2017 – Anthropocene, the magazine, Colorado Global Hub of Future Earth

2016 – The Elements of Power: Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age, by David S. Abraham

2015 – “Louisiana Loses Its Boot” by Brett Anderson, freelance writer, published on Medium

2014 – “Mahogany’s Last Stand” by Scott Wallace, freelance writer, published in National Geographic Magazine

2013 – Dirty, Sacred Rivers: Confronting South Asia’s Water Crisis, by Cheryl Colopy

2012 – “Reversing 300 years of damage / A movement is under way to purge the trash, bacteria and pollution that have long infected the city’s heart” by Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun

2011 – Growing Up WILD: Exploring Nature with Young Children Ages 3-7, produced by Council for Environmental Education

2010 – The Chesapeake Watershed: A Sense of Place and a Call to Action, by Ned Tillman

2009 – “Invasive Species of Oregon,” Statesman Journal (Salem, Oregon)

2008 – “Fueling Iowa’s Future: Biofuels” by a team of reporters, The Des Moines Register

2007 – Platte River Odyssey, the magazine, produced by College of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

2006 – “Crude Awakening” by a team of reporters, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio)

2005 – “Invaded Waters” by Tom Meersman, The Minneapolis Star Tribune

2004 – “Toxic Air: Lingering Health Menace” by Jim Bruggers, The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky)

2003 – “Our Troubled Sound” by a team of reporters led by Robert McClure, Lisa Stiffler, and Lise Olsen, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

2002 – “Georgia’s Disappearing Songbirds” by Charles Seabrook, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

2001 – Bay Journal, Karl Blankenship, editor; Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, publisher

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