Wendy Paulson leads a spring birding hike at Penny Road Pond on May 30, 2012.

Wendy Judge Paulson (VBH Resident!), lifelong advocate for nature education  and biodiversity conservation, has received one of the highest honors bestowed by The Garden Club of America (GCA), the Margaret Douglas Medal. The award, presented to Paulson at the GCA’s annual meeting here this evening, is for notable service to the cause of conservation education.

In honoring Paulson, the GCA hailed her as a “formidable force in conservation” locally, nationally and internationally. “From teaching elementary school science to driving the preservation and restoration of native landscapes, Paulson has devoted her life to convincing people, from heads of state to urban schoolchildren, to care deeply about nature,” said the GCA in honoring Paulson. “She is a principled and tireless advocate for environmental education and the conservation of land.”

While teaching for many years in Boston, Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C., Paulson has helped institute programs to enrich the science curricula, used local parks and preserves to teach children about nature, played a leadership role in community environmental organizations and led bird walks. Teaching, advocacy and philanthropy have been springboards to numerous board leadership positions in conservation organizations such as Rare, The Nature Conservancy, Cornell Lab of Ornithology and BirdLife International.

In Illinois, Paulson has worked for decades to restore grasslands. Besides hands-on involvement in seed collecting, sowing and removing invasive species, she continues to lead bird walks to educate others about native landscapes and species and to teach in a prairie program she helped establish to immerse schoolchildren in local grasslands of the Prairie State.

More recently, Paulson has been a leading participant in the preservation of barrier islands off the Georgia coast, a tidal-marsh ecosystem that provides habitat for thousands of migratory shorebirds and marine wildlife. Working with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and The Nature Conservancy, she is working to establish Little St. Simons Island as a model for conservation management and education.

In addition, Paulson spearheaded the effort to save Cannon’s Point, a 608-acre parcel of maritime forest and salt marsh on the north end of St. Simons Island. In 2010, the property was slated for development of 450 homes and golf course. Working with the St. Simons Land Trust, Paulson enlisted the support of residents and business leaders and raised funds. Cannon’s Point was purchased by the land trust, protected with a conservation easement and now is a publicly accessible wilderness preserve.

Paulson is cofounder and chairman of the Bobolink Foundation, whose mission is to advance conservation and stewardship of biodiversity through protection of natural areas, education and building local constituencies for nature.

“Paulson has a passion for communicating conservation to people of all ages – leading inner-city schoolchildren on bird walks in Central Park, harvesting prairie seeds with students in the Midwest as they learn about grassland restoration and sharing her knowledge of birds and their flyways with members of the community,” observed the GCA. “She has committed her life to biodiversity conservation and to inspiring and training new generations to cherish nature.”

The Margaret Douglas Medal originally was presented and endowed by Priscilla Sleeper Sterling (1920-2011), Garden Club of Dublin and Monadnock Garden Club (both in New Hampshire), to venerate Mrs. Walter Douglas (1890-1963), an honorary GCA member. Art deco sculptor Rene P. Chambellan designed the medal in 1952. Previous winners include author and environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas (1990), documentary filmmaker Bill Kurtis (1997) and entomologist, researcher and educator Douglas W. Tallamy (2013).

Paulson was nominated for the award by the Ridgefield Garden Club, Ridgefield, Connecticut.

The GCA is a nonprofit national organization composed of 200 clubs with nearly 18,000 members who devote energy and expertise to projects in their communities and across the United States. Founded in 1913, the GCA is a leader in horticulture, conservation and civic improvement. (www.gcamerica.org)

Jennifer Barnette
The Garden Club of America
212.753.8292
gcamedia@gcamerica.org