Michigan native honored for decades of conservation advocacy
U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (MI) was recently honored with the Conservation Champion Award at Pheasants Forever’s 2024 Michigan State Convention. The award recognizes Stabenow’s decades of service to conservation, and her tremendous success in advocating for the natural world in her home state and across the nation.
“Senator Stabenow has been a leader and an inspiration for decades,” said Marilyn Vetter, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s president and CEO. “Not only was she the first woman elected to represent Michigan in the United States Senate, but in her nearly five decades of public service at the state and federal level, she has made a truly profound impact on the world of conservation, and beyond. We’re incredibly proud to present her with the Conservation Champion Award in recognition of her long and successful career supporting conservation, agriculture, and rural America.”
Stabenow is currently the chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. Through this work, she shapes the nation’s food, farm and conservation policy — impacting generations to come. The 2024 Farm Bill will be the Senator’s sixth during her time in office, and the third she has led as either the chair or the ranking member of the committee.
As part of the 2014 Farm Bill, Senator Stabenow helped create the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), which takes a voluntary approach to expand the reach of conservation efforts and climate-smart agriculture through public-private partnerships.
The Senator has long been a champion of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and has helped strengthen many of the Farm Bill’s other conservation programs as well, including the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) and the Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program (VPA-HIP).
“Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever have been such fantastic partners with me in passing historic conservation initiatives that will impact generations to come,” Stabenow said. “Michigan’s wildlife and natural resources are part of our DNA, which makes this honor especially meaningful to me.”