The 2022 Mike Maloney Environmental Service Award goes to Mary Abe for Outstanding Work for Climate Resilience. Since 2005, the Prince George’s Sierra Club Group annually honors a county resident for outstanding environmental service. The award is named after the late Walter “Mike” Maloney, Jr. (1930-2001), a civic activist, County Council member, and attorney dedicated to the rights and the quality of life of everyday people.
The development of a Climate Action Plan has been a major undertaking for environmental stewardship in Prince George's County during the past two years. As staff for the County's Climate Action Commission, Ms. Abe worked tirelessly on that effort, bringing together the ideas of diverse Commissioners, consultants, colleagues, and county residents to develop a comprehensive plan for decreasing greenhouse gases and increasing climate resilience. Prior to joining the Department of the Environment to work on the Climate Action Plan, her local work on storm water management projects and ecosystem restoration showed her commitment to taking a nature-based approach to addressing environmental challenges. The 2022 Maloney Environmental Service Award honors Mary for her persistent efforts to decrease climate impacts on our communities and make Prince George's County more resilient as climate change unfolds around us. The award will be presented at the Prince George's County Sierra Club Summer Picnic at Cosca Regional Park on Saturday, July 9, 1-4 PM.
In recommending Mary for this award, here’s what co-worker Dawn Hawkins-Nixon had to say: “Mary is an environmental steward who works tirelessly to preserve and protect the natural environment. She holds strong reverence for the natural world and commits to taking a nature-based approach to addressing environmental challenges. She often looks to protection and expansion of green space to define a path forward to improving environmental health as well as public health. In the capacity of staff to the Prince George's County Climate Action Commission from September 2020 through January 2022, Mary oversaw the production of the Commission's Draft Climate Action Plan. She was truly instrumental in the development of this plan which lays out strategies to reduce the County's greenhouse gas emissions and to prepare for a climate resilient future.”
We asked Mary what motivated and inspired her to do the work that she does, first in stormwater management and later with the Climate Action Plan.
“My overall motivation is to advance efforts for nature to have an equal voice at the table when considering human actions that impact wildlife, natural ecosystems, and our community’s most vulnerable populations,” she said. “And frankly, there are very few to no human activities that I can think of that do not somehow impact nature and humanity’s more vulnerable populations. As a society, our relationship with water and nature has become adversarial. For instance, the term stormwater management is an example of how the developed world has come to view water from rain as a nuisance, a hazard, or a negative that must be “managed” versus viewing it as an essential life-giving resource that should be cherished. I fear humanity has lost its way as we seem to have forgotten humans are also part of nature. When we destroy and abuse nature, we destroy and abuse ourselves.”
Though not a practicing Catholic, Mary was deeply moved by Pope Francis’s 2015 Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality. “Whenever I feel challenged by the sometimes-stark realities of climate change,” Mary said, “this quote inspires me to try harder to make a difference especially for our natural world, which has no voice in the matter.”
When we asked Mary about her hopes for the Climate Action Plan, she told us, “A climate action plan is about changing how we live, work, and play—essentially applying the Seventh Generation Principle. I hope through the implementation of this Plan, Prince George’s County becomes a nationally renowned innovative environmental leader that champions the protection of our community’s natural resources and ecosystems as essential in ensuring environmental justice and building a new green economy. If nature herself is compromised or destroyed, environmental justice will never be possible. Economic prosperity need not come at the expense of the environment. Natural and agricultural land are not infinite resources. As a society, we must stop the practice of achieving prosperity through greenfield land development. I hope this plan will support re-envisioning our County’s relationship with natural areas and farmlands, so that they are valued as unique economic drivers that must be protected, expanded, and incorporated within our communities as intrinsic to a carbon-neutral future.”
Mary credits her older brother Joe, her ‘biggest fan,” in helping her re-envision her career path and introducing her to Jim Foster at the Anacostia Watershed Society (AWS). “Jim provided me with incredible professional opportunities at AWS to use my skills and passion to improve the environment.”
“I have been very fortunate to work within collaborative teams that have supported my ideas and instilled me with confidence to try and make a difference,” Mary told us. “At the Prince George’s County Department of Public Works, Liz Miller and Charlie Griffith supported my efforts to champion the County’s first stream restoration (Galway Tributary) of a legacy concrete channel in Calverton. And now Dawn Hawkins-Nixon, the Associate Director of Sustainability, where I proudly work as a member of her team. Dawn served as Chair of the Climate Action Commission over the last year and a half. Without her tireless dedication and trust to allow the Commission’s drafting process to evolve, I assure you, the County’s Climate Action Plan would never have been completed. Dawn and DoE’s Director Andrea Crooms inspire their teams to think big and, most importantly, to
speak up and defend doing what is right, especially where our environment is concerned. At this most pivotal time when our community must urgently face the escalating challenges of climate change, our County government is very fortunate to have these influential women leaders among its ranks. They lead by example.”
Leading by example is the role of a mother, a father, a brother or sister, a friend, or a colleague. But leading by example is also about taking the time to care enough about what may seem minor and seemingly pointless whenfacing the daunting challenge of climate change. It can be as small as grabbing that plastic container out of the trash can and placing it in recycling when no one is looking or stopping your car to move a turtle across a busy road. You never know who is looking or what your actions may impact. If each of us, at least once a day, leads by example, we do have the power to shape our future. The butterfly effect is real. We should never forget that.
--Mary Abe, 2022
