DeSantis Honors Everglades Restoration Leaders

By AI, Created 11:30 AM UTC, May 20, 2026, /AGP/ – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis awarded the Governor’s Medal of Freedom to four Everglades champions on Tuesday, recognizing decades of work to restore and protect the ecosystem. The honor underscores how a long-running environmental campaign became a major state priority and credits the people who helped drive it.

Why it matters: - The award is one of Florida’s highest honors and signals state recognition of the Everglades restoration effort. - The honorees helped drive decades of advocacy, fundraising, policy work and public attention around America’s Everglades. - Their work supported restoration efforts tied to South Florida’s water supply, ecology and economy.

What happened: - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis awarded the Governor’s Medal of Freedom on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, to Paul Tudor Jones II, Mary L. Barley, the late George M. Barley and the late Nathaniel P. Reed. - The ceremony recognized the recipients for decades of work to restore and protect America’s Everglades. - The Everglades Foundation marked the honor as a recognition of the organization’s early leaders and long-term supporters.

The details: - The Governor’s Medal of Freedom was established in 2020. - The state presents the medal to individuals who have made significant contributions to Florida and its citizens. - Paul Tudor Jones II and George Barley saw Florida Bay decline in the early 1990s and worked with scientists to identify the cause. - That research pointed to reduced freshwater inflow and South Florida’s water infrastructure, built in the 1940s, as major drivers of environmental damage. - Jones and George Barley founded The Everglades Foundation in 1993. - Eric Eikenberg, CEO of The Everglades Foundation, said the honorees’ courage shaped the organization’s growth and its restoration mission. - Jones has spent more than 30 years on Everglades and Florida Bay restoration and helped grow The Everglades Foundation into a major environmental advocacy group. - Jones also co-founded the Robin Hood Foundation and the JUST Capital Foundation, serves on the board of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and founded Tudor Investment Corporation in 1980. - Mary L. Barley has served as a founding director for more than three decades. - Mary L. Barley helped advance the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan and a constitutional amendment creating accountability for environmental damage caused by nutrient pollution. - Mary L. Barley has also worked with environmental organizations across Florida and the country, and TIME named her one of 100 “Hero of the Planet” honorees. - The U.S. House of Representatives and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida have both honored Mary L. Barley for stewardship. - Mary L. Barley and George Barley were inducted into the Everglades Coalition Hall of Fame in 2025 as the only couple ever inducted. - George M. Barley, a seventh-generation Floridian, helped raise national awareness for Everglades restoration and pushed for polluter accountability. - George Barley died in a plane crash in 1995 while traveling to a briefing on Everglades restoration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. - Nathaniel P. Reed served as Florida Gov. Claude Kirk’s environmental advisor and as assistant secretary of fish, wildlife and parks at the U.S. Department of the Interior from 1971 to 1977. - Reed co-authored the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and helped end DDT use while advancing the Clean Water Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Between the lines: - The award places environmental restoration alongside the kind of civic leadership Florida typically reserves for its most visible public figures. - The honorees’ biographies show a mix of philanthropy, policy influence and science-based advocacy, which has been central to keeping Everglades restoration moving. - The recognition also highlights how private citizens helped turn a local ecological crisis into a sustained public campaign.

What’s next: - The Everglades Foundation says it will continue its work to restore and protect clean freshwater flow to the Everglades. - The organization plans to keep pushing the world’s largest ecosystem restoration project through science, advocacy and education. - More information is available in The Everglades Foundation’s announcement.