Environmental Law Institute - National Wetlands Awards

Ms. Catherine Macdonald was an undergraduate at Humboldt State University when she first worked with The Nature Conservancy as a volunteer preserve manager in the late 1970s. That experience inspired her ongoing commitment to wetland conservation.

Since 1984 Ms. Macdonald has served as either director of stewardship or director of conservation programs for The Nature Conservancy (TNC) of Oregon. She has used her unique combination of optimism, dedication, creative problem solving, humor, scientific credibility, and relationship-building skills to foster partnerships among private landowners, nonprofits, and public agencies and to achieve the conservation and restoration of tens of thousands of wetland acres in Oregon.

In addition to expanding the TNC portfolio of protected wetlands, Ms. Macdonald has assisted federal agencies, local governments, and land trusts in completing acquisitions and restoration projects throughout the state. She currently is working with neighboring states on eco-regional conservation plans and representing TNC on several national task forces.

Ms. Macdonald truly enjoys working with people to make progress on conservation issues. Her work over the past 20 years demonstrates that conservation can be extraordinarily successful when pursued with a positive, optimistic, proactive approach based on a spirit of collaboration. She has created an inspirational legacy of wetland conservation.