By Howard Whiteman
Murray State University
In January of 2020, the Four Rivers region lost an important champion of conservation, Maggie Morgan. Now Murray State’s Watershed Studies Institute (WSI) is solidifying her legacy with a new award and the renaming of one of the Four Rivers Watershed Sustainability Festival events.
Honoring Maggie in this way is long overdue. A native of Maysville, she received her B.S. and M.S. in Biological Sciences from Murray State, working in the lab of Dr. Tim Johnston. She interned at the Jackson Purchase Foundation (JPF) in 2008 and quickly moved her way up, taking on more and more duties, both within JPF and beyond.
Her responsibilities included being Co-Chair of the Kentucky Watershed Watch program, Four Rivers Basin Coordinator, and leading the Four Rivers Watershed Watch. And in these roles, Maggie’s conservation vision blossomed. Some of her projects directly affected our watersheds, while others were aimed at environmental education. But all of her efforts have helped improve our environment, the water we drink, and the rivers and lakes that we recreate on.
Water Quality from the Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute. (Photo
courtesy of KWRRI)
Programs she helped lead included the Obion River restoration, WHO Festival, Four Rivers Watershed Sustainability Festival, Clark’s River Family Float Day, Stormwater Quality Field Day, Clean Stream Team, Ohio River Sweep, Watershed Conservation and Rain Barrel Workshops, creating new boat ramps on Clark’s River, numerous rain gardens, and acting as a technical advisor for conservation plans.
Yet no matter how busy she was organizing these programs, she was always thinking about how to better educate people. As Rhonda Lamb from JPF noted, “She had a way about her that would want to make you learn more about water quality. She never stopped and never grew tired of teaching about water quality.” Countless numbers of children and adults were influenced by Maggie’s message.
Because of her tremendous impact, in 2019 she received the Lauderdale Award for Outstanding Contributions in Water Quality by the Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute. Such awards are often given at the twilight of a career, yet Maggie had worked so hard—and so effectively — to promote water quality that conservation leaders and resource managers throughout the state bestowed this honor upon her after a decade of service to the Commonwealth.
Kevin Murphy, President of JPF, perhaps said it best: “Maggie always completed every job no matter how trivial or complicated to the highest degree with a smile on her face. She jumped in and saved the day where others bailed out or just got tired of paddling against life’s struggles and storms. Maggie was the Captain for common sense water quality and environmental projects across Kentucky but especially in western Kentucky. Everyone that knew her was proud to serve and follow her.
Kentucky will miss her.”
When you lose someone like that, you don’t get over it. Our hearts continue to ache at the loss of our Captain and friend.
We often take for granted the important people in our lives, and many of us know that we will never be able to replace what Maggie did for us, and our environment. Perhaps part of her legacy is thanking people every day for what they do, ensuring they understand how special they are to us. I certainly wish that I had another chance to thank Maggie, and in some ways, now I do.
WSI has established a new award in Maggie’s honor, the Maggie Morgan Watershed Sustainability Award. The award will be given each spring to a champion of the environment, including volunteers, scientists, resource managers, teachers, farmers, and others. Some years the award will be regional, while others it might honor a Murray State alumnus who, like Maggie, went on to make a difference in the environment, perhaps nationally or internationally. It is our way of both honoring Maggie’s legacy and those that continue to follow her lead in environmental
advocacy and education.
In addition to the award, we are renaming one of our Festival’s most important events. Each semester the MSU chapter of Sigma Xi, the scientific research society, and WSI join to hold a Science Café, in which we bring in a scientist to discuss their work and how it relates to daily life, as a way of helping everyone understand why science is so important. In the past, we have focused our spring Science Café on the environment, including presentations on Chronic Wasting Disease in deer and the effects of pesticides on humans.
This year we are cementing that effort, and Maggie’s legacy, by renaming our spring event the Maggie Morgan Memorial Science Café, and using that venue to present the award named in her honor. Given Maggie’s promotion of science and the environment, the Science Café is an excellent way to remind us of her legacy every year, and help inspire all of us to do more for the environment in our daily lives.
On Wednesday, April 23, at 6 p.m., we will be meeting at Hop Hound in Murray to present the first Maggie Morgan Watershed Sustainability Award to Maggie, posthumously, and her husband, son, and other family and friends will be there to join us. I hope you will too. That ceremony, in which we will also officially rename the event, will be followed by a discussion focused on invasive species by Jeff Herod from the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.
Maggie’s legacy is not only what she accomplished directly, but also what she set into motion, as there are numerous projects that will continue for decades, including the Watershed Festival that many enjoy each April. Perhaps part of her legacy should be what we all need to do—now—to keep that conservation success going.
We cannot wait for the next Maggie, as there surely will never be anyone just like her. But if we all step forward and do our part to help conserve the environment, each of us might channel the spirit, the smile, and the determination of Maggie Morgan. We can all start by joining together on April 23 to honor her legacy. Hope to see you there.
Dr. Howard Whiteman is the Commonwealth Endowed Chair of Environmental Studies and professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Murray State University.