2025 Conservation Achievement Awards
Honoring Excellence
Conservation Achievement Award Recepients
Since 1960, Arkansas Wildlife Federation (AWF) has recognized Arkansas’ outstanding conservation leaders through our Conservation Achievement Awards. Each category represents a vital contribution to the conservation and preservation of wildlife and natural resources in the state.
We are pleased to highlight our most recent awardees.
Pat Fitts
Harold Alexander Lifetime Achievement Award
This is the highest conservation achievement award presented by the Arkansas Wildlife Federation. This award is given to an individual who has made significant contributions to the conservation of wildlife and natural resources in Arkansas over their lifetime.
John Patrick “Pat” Fitts (1965-2025) is being honored posthumously with the Harold Alexander Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his extraordinary, lifelong contributions to conservation in Arkansas. Over a 36‑year career with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Pat served in roles ranging from fisheries technician to biologist, enforcement officer, and ultimately the agency’s 18th Director. His leadership advanced conservation efforts, strengthened infrastructure, and expanded public access across the state. Known for his integrity, servant leadership, and deep reverence for the outdoors, Pat earned numerous accolades throughout his career. His legacy reflects a lifetime devoted to protecting Arkansas’ wildlife and natural resources for generations to come.
Brent Birch
Rex Hancock Conservation Advocate Award
This award is given to an individual, group, or agency that has made significant contributions to the conservation of wildlife and natural resources through advocacy.
Brent Birch is the Executive Director of the Little Rock Technology Park, a public initiative designed to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in the heart of downtown Little Rock. Brent is deeply rooted in Arkansas’ waterfowling heritage. He authored The Grand Prairie: A History of Duck Hunting’s Hallowed Ground and co-hosts The Standard Sportsman podcast. He founded Greenhead: The Arkansas Duck Hunting Magazine and helped establish the Arkansas Waterfowler Hall of Fame. An active conservationist, Brent served as Chairman of the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission Director’s Advisory Council on Hunting and sits on several nonprofit boards, including the Arkansas Game & Fish Foundation and Downtown Little Rock Partnership. A former Razorback baseball pitcher, Brent earned his Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Arkansas, where he was a four-year letterman and 1990 SWC Champion.
Boone County Conservation District
Carol Griffee Conservation Communicator Award
This award recognizes the outstanding efforts of an Arkansas-based journalist, communicator, or media firm that has made significant contributions in communicating wildlife and related natural resource conservation information to the public in Arkansas.
With nearly 30 years of combined experience, Lisa Widner and Jack Hensley are dedicated to promoting the conservation of natural resources in Boone County. As the staff of the Boone County Conservation District, they work to inform landowners and the public about issues that may affect their land and local ecosystems. Through newsletters, field days, social media, and a variety of educational outreach programs, they encourage residents to take an active role in preserving Arkansas’ natural resources. Their newly launched Fence Talk podcast expands that mission by partnering with organizations and individuals to share conservation ideas, programs, and success stories.
Dick Carmical
Conservation Leadership Award
This award is given to an individual, group, or agency that has made significant contributions to the conservation of wildlife and natural resources in Arkansas by demonstrating outstanding leadership in their field. Recipients may work in the field of wildlife biology, enforcement, forestry, water conservation, or related profession.
Dick Carmical, CEO of The Price Companies, leads a business that provides land management, water resources, woodyard services, and precision agriculture, helping customers save more than 10 billion gallons of water annually with a goal of reaching 30 billion gallons by 2030. As a landowner, he has implemented wildlife-focused conservation across more than 8,000 acres, including Firehunt—a 7,000‑acre property bordering the Seven Devils Wildlife Management Area—where he manages habitat for waterfowl through forest openings and planted foraging fields. His conservation efforts also extend to 1,800 acres enhanced for bobwhite quail through forest thinning and prescribed fire under a Regional Conservation Partnership Project, with practices expanded beyond the original project area. Firehunt participates in chronic wasting disease monitoring through the Deer Management Assistance Program and regularly hosts staff trainings, field demonstrations with the Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture, and University of Arkansas Monticello wildlife management classes, giving students hands-on experience capturing and banding waterfowl.
Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture
Outstanding Conservation Partner Award
This award is given to an individual, group, or agency that has made significant contributions to the conservation of wildlife and natural resources in Arkansas through collaboration and strong partnerships.
The Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture (LMVJV) is a self-directed, non-regulatory partnership uniting private, state, and federal conservation interests to sustain bird populations and their habitats across the Lower Mississippi Valley and the West Gulf Coastal Plain/Ouachitas regions. The LMVJV serves as a collaborative forum where conservation partners develop a shared vision for bird conservation, work together to implement that vision, and continually refine it in alignment with national and international conservation goals.
The LMVJV coordinates both the Mississippi Alluvial Valley and AR-LA West Gulf Coastal Plain Conservation Delivery Networks (CDN), which are among the most productive and influential collaborative professional networks among wildlife conservation groups in Arkansas.
In 2025 the LVMJV successfully secured a second round of funding for its Open Pine Regional Conservation Partnership Project (RCPP) for a total of $21,250,000, which will provide assistance to landowners that seek to improve wildlife habitat in 27 south Arkansas counties and 20 north Louisiana parishes over the next four years. This project, which is the second RCPP project in the region, advances habitat management practices that benefit a wide range of wildlife including prescribed fire, timber thinning, and habitat restoration. This project serves as an excellent demonstration of the LMVJV’s commitment to partnership and collaboration.
Toby Hollin
Conservation Educator Award
This award is given to a professional or volunteer educator, firm, or agency (formal or non-formal) that has made significant contributions to conservation education in Arkansas.
Toby Hollin, a 5th–6th grade science teacher at Acorn Elementary in the Ouachita River School District, has spent 16 years coaching and teaching in Arkansas, guided by the belief that “not all classrooms have four walls.” Inspired by her mother’s love of nature, she centers her teaching on hands‑on, outdoor learning, from greenhouse and garden projects that teach sustainability, photosynthesis, and nutrition to activities that let students enjoy the food they grow. Hollin and her students also maintain and study eight acres of school-owned woods, where they explore life cycles, conservation, and practical science skills. Outside of school, she spends as much time as possible outdoors with her husband, Eric, and their two children—camping, hiking, fishing, hunting, and horseback riding—continuing a lifelong connection to the natural world that she now shares with her students.
Laiden Lindsey
Student Conservationist Award
This award is given to a professional or volunteer educator, firm, or agency (formal or non-formal) that has made significant contributions to conservation education in Arkansas.
Laiden Lindsey, a 17‑year‑old senior at West Side High School in Greers Ferry, has long nurtured a passion for animals and the outdoors that fuels his interest in conservation, wildlife biology, and veterinary science. He is completing a Veterinary Science Certificate program that combines classroom learning with hands‑on experience at Sartin Animal Care Clinic, and he has been active in FFA, serving two years as Treasurer. Laiden volunteers weekly at the Little Rock Zoo as a certified Bio Facts educator and helps restore pollinator habitat at the Little Rock Air Force Base. He was also selected as an Ambassador for Generation Conservation, a new Arkansas Game and Fish initiative. Looking ahead, Laiden plans to pursue a career in veterinary medicine while continuing to expand his knowledge, explore new opportunities, and contribute to the protection of wildlife and the well‑being of animals and their caregivers.
Congratulations to these outstanding conservationists! We are proud to honor their far-reaching impacts to wildlife conservation in Arkansas.