This year’s guest of honor and recipient of the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay 2009 Environment Leadership award is G. Steele Phillips, a long-time leader and pioneer of preservation and conservation of farm lands, will be presented with the award at the Alliance’s fundraiser. The presentation will take place at the annual Taste of the Chesapeake on the evening of Friday, October 2, 2009, at the Baltimore Museum of Industry on the Inner Harbor south.
Recipients of the Environmental Leadership award are chosen for their dedication to the cause of conservation and preservation of natural resources in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Past recipients have included volunteers and public servants, some who have focused on particular issues and areas, and others whose service has been broad and watershed-wide.
Alliance Board Chair, William Matuszeski congratulated Steele and noted, Steele has been a life-long fighter for the Bay and an outspoken leader in the farm community on the Eastern Shore, as well as a dedicated member of the Bay Programs Citizens Advisory Committee. I cannot think of anyone who has devoted more volunteer hours to the effort to restore the Chesapeake. He is truly deserving of the 2009 Environmental Leadership Award .
For more than 50 years, and prior to his retirement, he and his wife, Doris, have operated more than 762 acres in farmland, forest, and wetlands in Dorchester County on Marylands Eastern Shore. Steele Phillips has continuously applied new knowledge, techniques and strategies in order to achieve success in farming with minimal impact on the environment.
An early participant in the Integrated Pest Management program, he also was one of the first to apply no-till farming practices, and was the first to plant no-till corn in Dorchester County where he remains a supporter of the practice today. Mr. Phillips has always opened his farms to tours of agricultural and environmental groups to show farming practices and techniques that do not cause an adverse impact on the environment.
Mr. Phillips has demonstrated leadership in farming and agricultural areas. He has served as the first chairman of the Agricultural Land Preservation Board in Dorchester County, and served as chairman of the Dorchester County Soil Conservation District for several terms. He also served as a member of the Board of the Directors of Agri-Corn, a cooperative effort of several farmers for sorting, handling, and marketing corn. Phillips served on the Critical Areas Commission and Farm for the Futures Board, co-sponsored by the Farmland Trust and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, to delineate prime agricultural land for future agricultural use. He has also served on Congressman Gilchrests Ag Advisory Committee.
Recently, Mr. Phillips retired his membership in the Citizens Advisory Committee, which reports directly to the Bay Program Executive Council, and is comprised of the Governors from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, District of Columbia and the Environmental Protection Agency. He also served as the liaison to the Bay Program Nutrient Sub-committee.
The Alliance is honored to recognize G. Steele Phillips as its 2009 Environment Leadership Award recipient for his tireless dedication to the preservation and conservation of agricultural lands.
We hope you can attend the dinner where the Alliance will honor G. Steele Phillips and his dedication and innovation to the Maryland farming industry. Please contact the Alliances offices at 410-377-6270. Tickets are $120 per person and all proceeds benefit the Alliance and its mission to protect and restore the Bay.
Sponsors of this fun-filled evening of wining, dining and entertainment include Dominion, Met-Pro, Kinsley Construction, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Susquehanna Real Estate, Glatfelter Paper, Constellation Energy, Perdue Foundation, Utz Quality Foods, Inc., Shipley Energy, Aqua America, York Water Company, Smithfield Foods, R.H. Sheppard Company, and Rifkin, Livingston, Levitan & Silver, LLC.
The Taste of the Chesapeake will be held from 7:00 to 11:00 p.m., Members and friends of Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay are encouraged to join the organization at this festive event to celebrate a mutual passion for the Chesapeake Bay.
source: Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay press release
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