Congratulations are in order for two of our fearless leaders who were celebrated in late January at the 41st annual Everglades Coalition Conference in Naples.

Friends of the Everglades Executive Director Eve Samples won Conservationist of the Year and board member and hydrologist Dr. Christopher McVoy was awarded with the Public Service Award by the Everglades Coalition. 

Both Eve and Chris have played a pivotal role in our battle to shut down “Alligator Alcatraz” — the ICE detention center ramrodded into Big Cypress National Preserve last summer — and their awards inspire them to advance this fight until it is won

In her acceptance speech, Eve spoke of her fondness for another iconic conversationist — Friends of the Everglades founder Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who founded our organization and helped lead the charge against the Everglades Jetport in 1969. 

“She was a fearless diplomat. A powerful communicator. An evangelist for science and truth. She was not easily intimidated. Most of all, Marjory made a tangible difference in the Everglades,” Eve said in her speech.

She reflected on an image of the runway framed in her office, a symbol of the environmental awakening that unfurled in response to the jetport fight five decades ago. 

Big Cypress National Preserve was created after that battle. It gave rise to our nation’s bedrock environmental laws, like the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. 

And although the seams of that fabric are tearing, she still sees a better future for Big Cypress, one in which the “Alligator Alcatraz” road signs are removed, the lights shut off at the detention center and the cages that have housed people removed. 

As Conservationist of the Year, she will keep fighting for this future.