They are guardians, advocates and stewards of Mobile Bay and beyond. Each brings skills and talents. Though from all walks of life, from park ranger to journalist, they are united in passion for protecting our shores. Each one is here for our waterways and its life. They are the 2026 class of Watershed Award winners, nine people who make a difference.
Mackenzie Russell
When Mackenzie Russell walked the stage to receive her high school diploma, her family shouted, “Save the whales!”
She does.
For about eight years, Mackenzie has worked at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab’s Alabama Marine Mammal Stranding Network. Currently, she is the stranding programs manager. Her job includes performing necropsies (a postmortem examination of an animal) to determine the cause of death.
“It’s kind of like CSI,” says Russell, about internal examinations of deceased dolphins and whales that can weigh 600 pounds and up. “Upon arrival on scene, I examine the location to get an idea of any signs that can help point to what happened to that animal. Why is it sick or dead? What caused it?”
The examination is not just to satisfy curiosity. Russell notes that our health may be at stake. For as dolphins, so go you and I.
She explains, “Dolphins are humans’ closest analogs. They eat the same fish we eat. They swim in the same places we swim. We share the same environment. So if dolphins are getting sick, there is a good chance that people will, too.”
Russell holds a BS and MS degrees in marine biology from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She also completes hands-on training at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab.
A Minnesota native, she hadn’t heard of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab until about 2017. She attended a meeting held by her employer, the University of Florida. “There were these very outspoken marine mammal people from Alabama,” she recalls. “I remember being like, ‘dang! These people are cool!’”
She later applied for and obtained a job as streaming coordinator at Dauphin Island Sea Lab. Turns out, those “cool people” she witnessed at the University of Florida would one day be her Sea Lab co-workers.
Justin Hammers
Justin Hammers’ worksite covers 108 acres, with more coming. He wears many hats, but the coolest is park ranger.
His official title is park ranger and urban forester, Fairhope’s first. His worksite is the Flying Creek Nature Preserve. The ranger’s duties include land and facilities management, coordinating with volunteer groups, and leading and delivering outdoor education programs with local schools.
From teaching and managing Fairhope’s newest park, Hammers goes hands-on in the fight against invasive plants. Such pesky intruders include kudzu, kogin grass, camphor trees, coral ardisia and Japanese climbing ferns, all of which test his authority.
“One of the biggest challenges is managing invasive species,” Hammers says. “It is something people need to know about. We need to be pulling these type of plants out. I want to spread the word about what is invasive and not good for our environment. Currently, that is a big focus.”
Hammers also partnered with the Pelican’s Nest Science Lab, which brings students to the preserve for a series called “Connecting to the Bay.” Students learn about the watershed connecting to Mobile Bay, human impact and friends and foes — that is, native and invasive plants, respectively.
A Tennessee native, Hammers’ love for the outdoors first began when he was a child. “I was born and raised near Nashville,” he recalls. “Beside my house was a beautiful little park with a creek attached.”
Fittingly, he now works in Fairhope, at a beautiful little park with a creek attached.
Cori Yonge
Cori Yonge is a freelance broadcast journalist. Her reporting avenues include Alabama Public Radio (APR) and National Public Radio (NPR). Her broadcast career started with a company layoff.
“I was in the corporate world until January of 2022,” the Fairhope resident recalls. “They laid off my entire division, 1,000 employees.” Many would see this as a defeat. Yonge saw it as an opportunity.
“My husband, Lynn, encouraged my return to school,” she recalls. “I remember him saying, ‘You have always wanted to earn a master’s degree in journalism. Why not return to college and get it?’”
While pursuing her master’s degree at the University of Alabama, Cori freelanced with APR, which made a connection with NPR. One of her most significant stories involved ash.
Her story focused on an unlined coal ash pond on the Mobile River at Alabama Power’s Plant Barry. The story had been in the news for months. Yonge’s angle was about the grassroots effort to force action.
She concentrated on three women, founders of the Coal Ash Action Group: Sally Smith, Diane Thomas and Savannah Wilson. “Sally had been diagnosed with stage four metastatic cancer,” recalls Yonge, “but she was not going to sit around and let it consume her. She was going to do something.”
The three raised local awareness and urged Alabama Power to move the ash rather than simply cap it in place.
Yonge’s freelance piece ran on NPR’s All Things Considered on Labor Day 2023 and then in the Morning Edition the next morning.
The televised piece attracted a California film producer’s attention and led to the documentary, “Sally’s Ashes.”
Yonge advises others wanting to enter the independent journalist arena, “There’s a place in the world for freelance writers, but it definitely is a labor of love. I never intended to make a living as a freelance writer. I intended just to hopefully create change.”
Dr. Steven Scyphers
An Ariton, Alabama (Dale County), native, Dr. Steven Scyphers path to coastal Alabama was via college — Enterprise State College, Auburn University (where he earned a bachelor degree in marine biology) and the University of South Alabama (where he earned a doctorate degree in marine science). Scyphers was also a tenured associate professor at Boston’s Northeastern University before returning to USA in 2022. He is a USA faculty member and associate professor in the Marine and Environmental Sciences department.
Scyphers and his team have a two-fold mission. One: to reach and educate about the benefits of better coastal development. “By this we mean living shoreline projects to restore grasses and protect the native vegetation, as opposed to putting bulkheads or hardening structures in place,” he says. “That is probably one of the best things we can do for our shorelines.” Two: study and report the human dimensions of fisheries. “We are in a two-year project of surveys and interviews of people accessing the water around us at about 174 sites around Mobile Bay. We want to know what kind of fish are there? What are the fishing opportunities? How can we make it sustainable?”
Scyphers is also USA’s first chief sustainability officer. He works closely with the university’s facility teams and academic partners on sustainability projects on USA’s campus and throughout Mobile Bay areas. His team is currently working with Mobile Bay National Estuary Program to implement nature-based strategies for stormwater management on greenspaces throughout campus.
Katherine Baltzer
Katherine Baltzer grew up on a Kansas farm. “It was in the middle of nowhere,” she claims. Regardless of location, the farm taught valuable lessons. She notes, “I learned the importance of working with nature rather than against it.”
As a youngster on a family trip to Florida, Baltzer saw the ocean, teeming with life in a saltwater ecosystem. She also discovered her life’s calling. The Kansas native recalls, “I knew then I wanted to do marine science in some way, shape or form.”
She came to Alabama in 2014. Now, in 2026, she is a coastal conservation specialist at the Nature Conservancy in Mobile.
A key endeavor Baltzer was deeply involved with is the lower Perdido Islands / Robinson Island restoration project. “It has been loved to death,” Baltzer says about the beautiful water associated with the small islands near Orange Beach. “People love it, but so do birds, crabs and other species.”
Katherine’s team planted approximately 200,000 plants across the islands. With funding gained from the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill, they were able to restore acres of beach, marsh habitat and sea grass beds.
She notes more needs to be done. “Builders should ensure their developments are sustainable and that we understand the impacts of building it.”
Baltzer continues, “I know the economic drivers are important to this region, but there are ways we can go about development that minimize our impact. Our way of life depends on our natural resources and the different services that we can get from them. If that goes away, we’re in trouble.”
She again recalls early life lessons from a Kansas farm yet applicable to Coastal Alabama, “work with nature, not against it.”
Travis Langen
A Southern California native who grew up in North San Diego County and attended the University of Santa Barbara, Travis Langen recalls his first visit to Alabama’s Gulf. “I was blown away.”
He adds, “I had not realized the Gulf Coast had such an amazing coastline.” His first visit was to receive a lay of the land. By his third visit, a happy reality set in. “Oh my gosh,” he said. “This is a once in a life time opportunity that I should not pass up. I want to be intimately involved.”
Langen is executive director of the Gulf Coast Center for Ecotourism and Sustainability. The non-profit organization opened in the spring of 2025. Among its offerings are camps, programs and coastal adventures. The center promotes sustainable tourism, raises environmental awareness and encourages stewardship of the Gulf Coast’s natural resources. And so does Langen.
“We’ve had a great year and a lot of positive feedback about this new campus,” he notes. “It has been embraced by organizations throughout the community. We’ve hosted a ton of different events.”
He adds, “We’ve hosted a lot of programs with partnering organizations from Mobile to all around the state, actually throughout the country. It is a beautiful facility. I believe it has become an important asset for the community, and we are only getting busier and more popular as people learn about us.”
The Center’s hope is that by coming to the campus, people develop a stronger appreciation and sense of love of Alabama’s wild natural environments, just as Langen did.
Patric Garmeson
As owner and captain of Ugly Fishing LLC, Patric Garmeson loves his job in a way that few people do. He takes people fishing, touring and experiencing Coastal Alabama’s saltwater world.
“I am fortunate to be outdoors and not in an office, breathing recirculated air,” says Garmeson, interviewed by phone while he is fishing offshore Fort Morgan.
He notes that fishing is a positive experience.
“I have parents booking trips, telling me how much their children love watching fishing videos. That is all good, but wait until that child sees the great outdoors firsthand. Seeing a different world of water and shore is pretty special.” There is not an app for that.
The captain adds, “There are also health benefits. Fishing takes you from the couch and personal electronic devices. Out here, you exercise, but it is so fun, so you never realize you’re doing it.”
Garmeson also advocates for the waters he loves. “We are concerned about industrial runoff and pollutants that are not being regulated or monitored enough,” he notes.
“Some of these sites pull water from the river, cool the equipment and discharge it back into the environment. Anything that increases the turbidity in the water can be a big contributor to water and fishery health issues.”
He also reminisces, “My parents put a fishing pole in my hands about as soon as I could walk,” he laughs. A Pennsylvania native, he moved to South Alabama at age 5. “I have always been around water and always appreciated it.”
Recalling an early fishing experience, he noted, “When I was a kid, dad got a shrimp net and casted it in and pulled it out of the water. I was fascinated by the shrimp, crabs, fish and other animals in it.”
It is those animals and the water from which they live, he strives to make better.
Cassie Bates
At about age 12, Cassie Bates learned to scuba dive and was captivated by creatures who call the water home. Her aquatic passions grew and continue to do so, for Bates’ love is also her advocacy.
“I was seeking any opportunity where I could work on and near the water,” the Phenix City / Columbus, Georgia native recalls. “The search led to Mobile, where I fell in love with the area.”
The daughter of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, Bates earned a bachelor’s in biology at LaGrange College and a master’s in marine conservation and resource management from the University of South Alabama. After graduation, she worked as a lab manager/technician for the Dauphin Island Sea Lab.
Today, she is the staff scientist for Mobile Baykeeper, a group that is here to “defend and revive the health of Coastal Alabama waters.”
Working with Baykeeper, she takes on major projects. One of her most significant actions to date is the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers’ mud dumping issue. Bates researched and wrote a 40-page white paper showing the harms of mud dumping in Mobile Bay.
“I critiqued that chosen practice of dredge material management, along with other concerns about stressors from the channel and on water quality and habitats and fisheries,” she recalls. “I shared it with the Army Corps of Engineers and sought community feedback and input on the critique that I had drafted as well.”
Bates also reflects on the positive. “One of the most rewarding parts of my job is attending community meetings and hearing how they value our waters,” she says. “The community members are from different backgrounds, so they may view issues differently, but they all see the value of protecting our area and our resources.”
Dr. Mimi Fearn
There was a time when Dr. Mimi Fearn was asked, “Watershed? What’s that?”
Happily, thanks to increased public awareness, fewer people inquire about a watershed’s meaning.
But for the unenlightened, Fearn answers, “A watershed is the land area that drains into a body of water, such as a stream, river or bay. It is all the land where precipitation flows toward the same outlet.”
The Dog River Clearwater Revival (DRCR) is Mimi’s outlet.
She joined the organization during the early 1990s, when it was a grassroots advocacy group with a mission of monitoring Dog River’s water quality.
“I have taught many over the years on how to do this,” says the former chair of USA’s Earth Sciences department and DRCR’s head monitor. She adds, “I have met some wonderful people, ‘citizen angels’ who give their time and work.”
Such work includes Dog River bacterial monitoring, water chemistry trends (salinity, turbidity, etc.) to see if the stream is improving or worse over time.
Her interest in clean water started in childhood. “I grew up here,” the Mobile resident says. “Dad had a boat and we were on this river a lot.”
She recalls a USA class she taught. “I had a field work class where students had to do a research paper. I wanted it to be local, so I defined my classroom around the Dog River watershed. That class has been going for 20 years. I know more about Dog River than most people want to know,” she laughs.
Fearn will soon step back, she says, but first, she wants to recruit more monitors. “If I had one hope, it would be some way to reach those who are soon retired from work to think about this. Try being a Dog River Watershed monitor.” The rewards are knowing you made a little part of Earth better.
Related Story: Meet the 2025 Watershed Award Winners
