Alabama Power’s Renew Our Rivers campaign has earned one of the state’s most prestigious environmental conservation awards.

The Alabama Wildlife Federation (AWF) honored Renew Our Rivers Aug. 9 as the Water Conservationist of the Year during the group’s annual Governor’s Conservation Achievement Awards ceremony.

For more than 40 years, AWF has presented the awards to people and organizations that work to conserve the state’s wildlife and other natural resources.

The Water Conservationist of the Year award recognizes work in water resources conservation. Efforts focused on protection and improvement of water quality are especially important.

Renew Our Rivers began in the spring of 2000 with one Alabama Power employee’s vision to clean a stretch of the Coosa River near the company’s generating plant in Gadsden. Since then, more than 117,000 volunteers have joined the effort and collected more than 15.5 million pounds of trash and debris from waterways across the Southeast.

“I experienced the positive impact of the Renew Our Rivers program firsthand during my time as executive director of the Freshwater Land Trust,” said Wendy Jackson, executive vice president of the Washington, D.C.-based Land Trust Alliance.

Jackson nominated Renew Our Rivers for the award. “This program truly benefits the rivers while inspiring people and communities to care. I understand the prestigious nature of the conservationist award, and I believe Renew Our Rivers exemplifies great dedication to conservation.”

More than 30 cleanups are taking place in 2019, the program’s 20th year.

“Renew Our Rivers, now celebrating 20 years, has become known nationally as a conservation leader in waterway cleanup,” said Thomas A. Harris, president of Alabama Black Belt Adventures. Harris also nominated Renew Our Rivers for the award. “The natural instinct to conserve and preserve water resources spurred this initiative and grew each year with the help of neighboring community partners, volunteers and organizations.”

In 2018 alone, 4,000 volunteers removed more than 268,000 pounds of trash from Alabama lakes, rivers and shorelines.

“The commitment to Renew Our Rivers continues to grow,” said Susan Comensky, Alabama Power vice president of environmental affairs. “We couldn’t do this without the wonderful partnerships we have made along the way. The campaign’s continued success is a testament to our partners and their passion for protecting our state’s precious natural resources.”

In addition to the Water Conservationist of the Year award, recent Alabama Power retiree Steve Krotzer was honored as the Fisheries Conservationist of the Year. Krotzer worked 37 years with Alabama Power, collaborating on numerous projects with state and federal biologists. This included work on assessing fish communities; discovering the most viable population of the threatened trispot darter; and assisting with data collection and water quality improvements for the Tulotoma snail, which contributed to the first federal “downlisting” of an aquatic snail, from endangered to the less-dire, threatened category. He also worked as the principal biologist on a landmark project to restore flows to a bypassed section of the Coosa River downstream of Weiss Lake.

“Steve’s fisheries career spans nearly 40 years. In that time, he has made significant contributions to the conservation, research and education of Alabama’s fisheries resources,” said Jason Carlee, Alabama Power Environmental Affairs supervisor. Carlee nominated Krotzer for the award. “In addition to his tremendous contributions to fisheries research and conservation throughout Alabama, Steve has served as a mentor for numerous other biologists and naturalists.”

For a list of all the honorees and more details about the ceremony, visit https://www.alabamawildlife.org/governors-conservation-achievement-awards/.

(This article originally appeared in the Wednesday, August 28 issue of the Demopolis Times.)