2025 Conservation Stewards Awards
Photo by Thomas Niemi.
Join ACT on Saturday, March 15, 2025, from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. for the Annual Conservation Stewards Awards at Prairie Creek Lodge. This event honors individuals in our community who are influential in a wide variety of ways – the arts, historic preservation, and particularly, in protecting our wildlife and natural resources. Past Conservation Stewards Awards have been some of the largest gatherings of community leaders and supporters of wild Florida in the region.
The event will include dinner, drinks and a musical performance. All funds from the event will support Alachua Conservation Trust's work towards land conservation.
As Florida’s biggest conservation event of the year, you won’t want to miss it!
Cocktail Hour • Catered Dinner • Silent Auction • Live Music
2025 Theme & Honorees
Return to Nature: Honoring Life & Conserving Land
The 2025 Conservation Steward Awards celebrates the conservation impacts and lasting legacies of Freddie Johnson and the Greene Family of Lake City, who have shaped the land through a deep-rooted passion for conservation and a unique approach that re-envisions how humans connect with nature.
Our honorees are committed to renewing the land through conservation as well as facilitating a meaningful and lasting impact for those who are no longer with us. Freddie Johnson, a founding member and past Executive Director of Conservation Burial, Inc., spent years nurturing the sacred connection that humans have with the land through his work establishing Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery, a green burial and conservation cemetery located at Prairie Creek Preserve in Alachua County.
The Greene Family have been dedicated stewards of their land near Lake City for over one-hundred years. Their efforts to preserve their property under a Conservation Easement, as well as their implementation of prescribed fire, has resulted in the protection and restoration of 1,500 acres of natural pine forests, forested wetlands, and floodplains along the storied Suwannee River.
These honorees represent the varied and meaningful ways in which we interact with the natural world over time. They have shown us that in both life and death, a brighter future for Florida’s environment is possible. Please join us in recognizing the 2025 Conservation Stewards!
Click here for a list of past Conservation Stewards Awards recipients.
Interested in being a 2025 CSA sponsor?
Contact us today for more info about how you can support conservation!
Thank You to Our Past CSA Event Sponsors!
Click on the logos above as they scroll through to view each sponsors’ website.
Driving Directions to the Event
This year’s event will take place at Prairie Creek Lodge located at: 7204 SE County Road 234, Gainesville, Florida 32641 (Google Maps)
From Downtown Gainesville:
Drive east on University Avenue (S.R. 26) for approximately 1.1 miles.
Veer right onto Hawthorne Road (S.R. 20) drive approximately 5.2 miles.
Turn right onto County Road 234
Stay left on County Road 234, cross the Gainesville-Hawthorne Rail Trail, and drive approximately 1.1 miles south. Please note, Google Maps has been taking vehicles down a private driveway immediately after this turn - keep driving until you see the green ACT entrance sign on the right. This error has been submitted to Google for correction.
Turn right after mailbox labeled “7204” - there is a green ACT sign.
From Interstate 75:
Take Exit 374 (Micanopy), turn east onto County Road 234 and drive approximately 1.3 miles.
Turn right onto Highway 441 and drive approximately 0.7 miles.
Turn left onto County Road 234 and drive approximately 5.9 miles.
Turn left before mailbox labeled “7204” - there is a green ACT sign.
Banner image by Thomas Niemi.
