The Camp Monaco Prize Partnership has announced the winners of the $100,000 Camp Monaco Prize, which supports integrated scientific research and public education initiatives in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to inform, inspire, and enhance biodiversity conservation in the United States and around the world.
The winning team for 2019 is led by Dr. Monica G. Turner, Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her collaborators include Drs. Rupert Seidl and Werner Rammer, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna Austria; and Dr. Zak Ratajczak, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Graduate students include Kristin H. Braziunas and Tyler J. Hoecker, also of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The goal of the winning project, titled Anticipating and Envisioning Future Landscapes of Greater Yellowstone, is to envision and share with the general public how landscapes of Greater Yellowstone are likely to change during the 21st century.
Peter Seibert, the Center of the West’s Executive Director and CEO, said, “We are excited to be able to award this prize to Dr. Turner and her team. This prize recognizes truly cutting-edge research and work relating to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. We are anxious to see and share with our visitors the information from this study.”
The Camp Monaco Prize, first awarded in 2013 and again in 2016, is an initiative of an international partnership of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West’s Draper Natural History Museum, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, and the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation-USA. These organizations are dedicated to the conservation of native biodiversity and established the Camp Monaco Prize as a collaborative effort to promote this common mission.
For the triennial prize, the partners invited proposals from around the world; winners were selected by a scientific jury that included a distinguished assemblage of scientists, scholars, public officials, and public outreach professionals. The Camp Monaco Prize is named for a hunting camp established near Yellowstone National Park in 1913 by Prince Albert I of Monaco (Prince Albert II’s great, great grandfather), and William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody. That trip resulted in extensive press coverage and discussions of the American wilderness.
Turner’s proposal was selected unanimously by the Prize Jury. Dr. Charles R. Preston, Curator Emeritus and Senior Scientist for the Draper Museum as well as Jury Chair, says, “This proposal edged out other fine proposals because of the broad scope and impact of the project and the innovative and thoughtful approach to public outreach.”
The Prize will be officially awarded in a ceremony at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West on September 20, 2019, by representatives of each of the partner organizations.
Since 1917, the award-winning Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, has devoted itself to sharing the story of the authentic American West. The Center is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution. For more information, visit centerofthewest.org or the Center’s Facebook page. #100YearsMore
Image: Dr. Monica G. Turner, winner of this year’s Camp Monaco Prize, working in the field in Yellowstone National Park.
