{"id":47661,"date":"2026-06-16T09:21:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T13:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=47661"},"modified":"2026-06-22T14:36:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T18:36:26","slug":"dnr-seeks-new-nominations-for-prestigious-admiral-of-the-chesapeake-bay-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2026\/06\/16\/dnr-seeks-new-nominations-for-prestigious-admiral-of-the-chesapeake-bay-award\/","title":{"rendered":"DNR Seeks New Nominations for Prestigious Admiral of the Chesapeake Bay Award"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_47663\" style=\"width: 450px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Admiral-of-the-Chesapeake-2025.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-47663\" class=\" wp-image-47663\" src=\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Admiral-of-the-Chesapeake-2025-1024x819.jpg\" alt=\"Three men in the govenor&apos;s office, one of them holding a framed certificate\" width=\"440\" height=\"352\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Admiral-of-the-Chesapeake-2025-1024x819.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Admiral-of-the-Chesapeake-2025-300x240.jpg 300w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Admiral-of-the-Chesapeake-2025-768x614.jpg 768w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Admiral-of-the-Chesapeake-2025-1536x1229.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Admiral-of-the-Chesapeake-2025.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 440px) 100vw, 440px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-47663\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maryland DNR Secretary Josh Kurtz and Governor Wes Moore present Professor Thomas Miller with the 2025 \u2018Admiral of the Chesapeake Bay\u2019 Award in the governor&#8217;s office. Photo by Polly Irungu, Office of the Governor.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is once again hosting a public nomination process for the Admiral of the Chesapeake Bay Award this year and is now accepting new nominations for potential awardees.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instituted by Governor J. Millard Tawes in 1959, the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/Pages\/admiral-of-the-chesapeake.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">admiral<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is a lifetime achievement award bestowed by the governor upon individuals who exhibit an extraordinary commitment to the conservation and restoration of the Chesapeake Bay.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">DNR is looking for nominees who have dedicated their careers to organizing communities, leading restoration efforts, deepening our understanding of Bay science, or otherwise helping to improve the overall health of the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">People interested in nominating an individual for the award can <a href=\"https:\/\/submit.jotform.com\/250124842272046\">fill out the public nomination form on DNR\u2019s website<\/a>. The nomination period will close August 31. The nominations will be reviewed by a committee of staff volunteers at the Department of Natural Resources who will make recommendations to the Secretary and Governor. Award winner(s) will be announced publicly when chosen, as has occurred previously. DNR plans to announce award winners by the end of the year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last year was <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2025\/01\/14\/dnr-seeks-community-organizers-and-environmental-restoration-leaders-for-admiral-of-the-chesapeake-bay-nominations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the first year that DNR offered<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> a public nomination process for this prestigious award. The process resulted in Professor Thomas Miller, a longtime fisheries biologist at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, being selected for the award during a public ceremony featuring Gov. Wes Moore at the Board of Public Works.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Previous Admirals of the Chesapeake Bay\u2013there are now more than 100\u2013include <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2017\/02\/23\/governor-larry-hogan-names-captain-eldridge-meredith-admiral-of-the-chesapeake-bay\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Captain Eldridge Meredith<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a waterman and charter boat captain who worked in and around the Bay for 80 years; David M. Goshorn, DNR\u2019s current Deputy Secretary and former DNR Chesapeake Bay restoration officer; and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbf.org\/blogs\/save-the-bay\/2019\/08\/the-legend-of-john-page.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">John Page Williams<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a master naturalist and environmental educator who worked for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation for 46 years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is once again hosting a public nomination process for the Admiral of the Chesapeake Bay Award this year and is now accepting new nominations for potential awardees. Instituted by Governor J. Millard Tawes in 1959, the admiral is a lifetime achievement award bestowed by the governor upon individuals<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2026\/06\/16\/dnr-seeks-new-nominations-for-prestigious-admiral-of-the-chesapeake-bay-award\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957],"tags":[3061,5352,5353],"class_list":["post-47661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","tag-admiral-of-the-chesapeake-bay","tag-josh-kurtz","tag-wes-moore"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47661"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47712,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47661\/revisions\/47712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}