First Recipient of Annual Conservation and Collaboration Award: Dr. Fern Duvall II
Last year we lost a cherished friend and colleague, and treasured Hawai’i Conservation community member, Dr. Fern Duvall II. Fern had recently retired from the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and Wildlife, where he had worked since 1984. Fern was also a long-time Pacific Birds Habitat Joint Venture champion.
At Pacific Birds, Fern contributed his leadership as an International Management Board member, Board Co-Chair, and Hawaiʻi Wetlands Committee member. He helped shape Pacific Birds' conservation efforts in Hawaiʻi with infectious enthusiasm, deep knowledge, and calm dedication. (See our tribute to Fern.)
Today, we are pleased to award Fern with the first Pacific Birds Habitat Joint Venture Conservation and Collaboration award, in recognition of all that he did for the birds, the environment, and for people around him. We present this posthumous award to Fern's family, who told us that Fern was proud of his work with Pacific Birds and would have been proud to be honored.
In Fern's honor, this award will hereafter be named the Dr. Fern Duvall Conservation and Collaboration Award. The annual award will recognize individuals working throughout the Joint Venture who embody the innovative, inclusive, humble, and collaborative spirit that Fern brought to conservation endeavors.
Fern's family and all of us at Pacific Birds hope that the award is inspirational to all of the recipients in the future.
A call for nominations will be announced in the Spring 2023.
