Each year, The Trustees recognizes those who have made significant impacts for conservation in Massachusetts with the prestigious Charles Eliot Award. The award winners are:
Conservationist of the Year*
2023 Wilmot R. Hastings (posthumously)
2022 Olmsted Now: The National Park Service
and The Emerald Necklace Conservancy
2021 Cape Cod Horticultural Society
2020 The Crocker Family
2019 Edward H. “Ted” Ladd
2018 Amos B. Hostetter, Jr.
2017 Peter Shelley
2016 National Park Service
2015 Amelia Peabody Charitable Fund
2014 Deval Patrick
2013 Southeastern Environmental Education Alliance (SEEAL)
2012 Land Trust Board of the South End and Lower Roxbury Open Space Land Trust
2011 Mimi Batchelder-Brown and the Batchelder Family Trust
2010 May Lisa Wong and the Fitchburg Greenway Committee
2009 Sisters of Providence
2008 Groundwork Lawrence and Groundwork Somerville
2007 Community Preservation Coalition
2006 The Barnes Family
2004 Town of Rochester
2003 Alison Coolidge, Tom Boreiko
2002 Antonia Lake, Steffan Phlen (posthumously), and Harriet Phlen
2001 Lyman Family and Polly Thayer Starr
2000 Len and Roslyn Harrington
1999 The Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust (DNRT)
1998 Pamela Weatherbee
1997 Joel Lerner
1996 Louise I. Doyle
1995 Alan French
1994 Marian Thornton
1993 Greg Watson
1992 John and Catherine Lastavica
1990 Al Creighton
1989 Kingsbury Brown, Jr., Esq., and Stephen J. Small, Esq.
1988 Frederic Winthrop Jr.
1987 Kelly McClintock
1979 Persis Louise Sterling and M. Jean Foley
1978 Janet Wilder Dakin
1977 Robert S. Russell
1976 Frederick T. Pratt
1975 John W. Peirce
1974 Thomas D. Cabot
1973 Richard Borden
1972 Morgan G. Bulkeley
1971 Mrs. Horatio Rogers
1970 Mrs. Seth Wakeman
1969 Charles W. Eliot, II
1968 People of Hingham and the South Shore
1967 Charles H. W. Foster
1965 Allen H. Morgan
1964 Dr. George C. Shattuck
1963 Donald B. Miller
1962 Hon. Leverett Saltonstall
1961 William Roger Greeley
1960 Hon. Francis W. Sargent
1959 Dr. Joel E. Goldthwait
1958 George Burnham Wells
1957 Fred Smith
1956 Arthur Theodore Lyman
1955 Robert Walcott
1954 Benton MacKaye
1953 Walter Prichard Eaton
1952 Charles Russell Mason
1951 Louise du Pont Crowninshield
1950 Fairfield Osborn
1949 Laurence Brown Fletcher
1948 Harris Aquilla Reynolds
1947 Harlan Page Kelsey
1946 Charles Sumner Bird
1945 Jay Norwood Darling
1944 William Sumner Appleton
1943 Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.
1942 Robert Moses
1941 Newton Bishop Drury
1940 Mrs. James J. Storrow
1939 John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
1938 Mrs. S.V.R. Crosby
1937 John S. Ames
1936 William P. Wharton
1935 Samuel W. York
1934 Dr. John C. Phillips
Charles Eliot Award**
2012 Mayor Thomas Menino
2010 Dr. David R. Foster
2008 William Clendaniel
2007 Genie Beal, Norton Sloan
2004 Herbert W. Vaughan
2001 Secretary Bob Durand and the Staff of Massachusetts Executive Office of Environment Affairs Land Conservation Team
2000 Al Creighton
1999 Harry and Gale Guild
1997 John Kimball
1996 Mass Audubon Society
1991 Gordon Abbott Jr., Patrick F. Noonan
* Prior to 1992, this award was referred to as the Conservationist Award. In 2015, this award was merged with the Charles Eliot Award.
** This award was established in 1991 as part of The Trustees 100th Anniversary celebration.