Environmental Law Institute - National Wetlands Awards

Peter David is a wildlife biologist with the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission. For 30 years, he has fostered partnerships between federal, state, county, and tribal agencies, NGOs, and concerned citizens to encourage wetland stewardship, research, and restoration, with a primary emphasis on wild rice (manoomin), a plant with significant ecological and cultural importance in the upper Midwest. He is considered by many to be one of the country’s foremost experts in rice ecology and conservation. He was intricately involved in establishing the Circle of Flight Program, which became the primary funding source for regional tribal wetland conservation efforts. He was a technical advisor for the Wild Rice Monitoring Handbook and Field Guide and was the lead author of a report identifying and describing over 300 northern Wisconsin manoomin waters. He coordinates a cooperative interagency restoration program that has increased rice abundance in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan by 25%.