Save the Manatee Club Board of Directors' Co-Chair Helen Spivey and Executive Director Patrick Rose, along with other members of the Three Sisters Springs Land Aquisition Team, were recently honored with Regional Director's Conservation Awards from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region (Service). The award is presented annually to partners who have made extraordinary contributions to the conservation of natural resources.

The awards ceremony was held on Tuesday, May 10, 2011 at the Mariott Century Center in Atlanta, Georgia. A description of the Three Sisters project in the Service's program for the event reads: "This project stands as a model for innovative partnerships. A diverse group of state, city, private and nonprofit organizations made it possible for the Service to acquire one of Florida's last remaining urban springs. Three Sisters Springs is an ecological marvel that supports a winter population of the endangered West Indian manatees in excess of 150 animals that rest, breed, and give birth in the springs." Read more>> (pdf)

Read a speech recognizing Helen Spivey by Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz in the Congressional Record (pdf).

At right, Helen Spivey, Co-Chair of Save the Manatee Club's Board of Directors, receives a Conservation Award for her work on the Three Sisters Springs Land Acquisition Project from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Regional Director Cynthia Dohner. (Photo by Tom MacKenzie, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

The Three Sisters Springs Land Acqusition Team award winners. Front row (l-r): Ken Reecy Florida Communities Trust; Tamar Hogan, Division of Realty Regional Office; Patrick Rose, Executive Director, Save the Manatee Club; Elizabeth Souheaver, National Wildlife Refuge System Regional Office; Helen Spivey, Co-Chair, Save the Manatee Club Board of Directors; Eric Sutton, Southwest Florida Water Management District; Cynthia Dohner, Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region. Back row (r - l, starting behind Cynthia Dohner): Gary Williams, Southwest Florida Water Management District; Jim Green, Friends of Chasshowitzka National Wildlife Refuge Complex; Betty Gouge, Division of Realty Regional Office; Lace Blue McLean, President, Friends of Chasshowitzka NWR; John Beasley, Social Circle, Georgia; Larry Black, Felburn Foundation; and Ron Kitchen, Council Member representing the City of Crystal River. (Photo by Tom MacKenzie, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)