The Environmental Protection Agency has named the winners of the Gulf Guardian Partnership awards in Biloxi, Mississippi.
The award recipients all worked on projects regarding rising sea levels and resiliency, the EPA reported in a release.
"EPA is very excited to recognize the Gulf Guardian Partnership winners for this for this year," EPA Region 4 Administrator Daniel Blackman said in the release. "The Gulf of Mexico is a precious resource and protecting it requires innovation and creative approaches, which these projects all embody."
The winners included Renee Collini for the Individual award, the Resilience to Future Flooding project for the Partnership award and the Sea-Level Rise in the Classroom curriculum for the Youth Environmental Education award, the EPA reported.
"Our program and our partners have undertaken creative and exciting efforts and as a result they have expanded the capacity of individuals, municipalities, states, and federal agencies to undertake sea-level rise resilience activities," Collini, director of the Program for Local Adaptation to Climate Effects: Sea-Level Rise, said in the release. "It is wonderful to see everyone's hard work recognized through the Gulf Guardian Awards."
The EPA's Gulf of Mexico Division held the first Gulf Guardian awards in 2000, the EPA reported. The intent is to give recognition to organizations and individuals that help enrich the Gulf of Mexico.
"The Gulf of Mexico is a vulnerable ecosystem that requires innovative approaches and proactive measures to protect this national resource," Marc Wyatt, director of the Gulf of Mexico Division, said in the release. "Over the past two years, the Gulf Guardian award winners have continued to think 'outside of the box' during challenging circumstances due to COVID-19. These Gulf Guardian Awards are an important way to recognize the valuable efforts of all their hard work to protect the environmental health of the Gulf of Mexico."
