Awardee

Collis G. Adams
Concord, New Hampshire

Collis G. Adams is the Administrator of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NH DES) Wetlands Bureau. Since 2000, he has been responsible for streamlining the state’s wetland permit application review process and improving the state’s enforcement response processes. He also served as chair of the Association of State Wetland Managers, during which he helped create several capacity-building projects serving states and tribes in wetland regulation, restoration, monitoring and assessment, and development of wetland water quality standards. He is an active member of the NH DES “Silver Jackets,” an incident and recovery response team that works to increase awareness, reduce flood risk, and facilitate partnerships related to mitigating and recovering from flooding events. He also served on his municipal conservation commission, during which time he was instrumental in designating prime wetlands, thus providing additional protections to the highest functioning wetlands, and writing local regulations to establish wetland and surface water buffers.