Every year RINHS recognizes a naturalist for reporting an extraordinary field find—a “good catch”—by giving them the Golden Eye Award. It could be a new species for Rhode Island, a rare or otherwise unusual species, an invasive species, or some other natural historical phenomenon. Nominations for the award are made by the RINHS staff and the winner is voted on by the Board of Directors. The award recognizes not just luck, though luck certainly plays a part in many good field finds, but the best naturalists’ skills, including perseverance, taxonomy, biological and ecological knowledge, curation and record keeping, and communication. To paraphrase one board member, “Some people get lucky, a few people make their own luck through hard work, and only a very few people work hard, get lucky, know enough to know how lucky they are, and take the time to share what they found. Those are the people we want to recognize with the Golden Eye Award.”

Past Winners
2008     Matt Ricker Found first water chestnut (Trapa natans) in RI
2009     Doug McGrady For finding over a dozen rare plant sites
2010     Mandy Gaudreau For finding, and describing the distribution of chytrid fungus in RI

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