Belgrade man among three in Maine recognized by EPA

BOSTON — A Belgrade man was was among two individuals and one business from Maine, and 25 from New England, recognized Sept. 10 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for their work to protect New England’s environment
They received their awards at the EPA’s New England office at the 2019 Environmental Merit Awards ceremony at Faneuil Hall.
The winners from Maine were Belgrade resident Matthew Scott, former state biologist and longtime environmentalist, and John Banks, director of the Penobscot Indian Nation’s Department of Natural Resources, both of whom received lifetime awards. In addition, Garbage to Garden in Portland won a merit award in the business category.
“The New England individuals, businesses, and organizations recognized today have shown dedication to the environmental and public health in their communities,” said EPA New England Administrator Dennis Deziel. “We are proud to present awards to these stewards of New England’s air, land and water.”
EPA New England each year recognizes individuals and groups in the six New England states who are distinguished by their work to protect or improve the region’s environment.
Since childhood, Scott has been an avid outdoorsman. In 1962, he became assistant regional fisheries biologist for the state Department of Fish and Game, then regional biologist in 1967.
In 1970, he was recruited by the Environmental Improvement Commission, later renamed Department of Environmental Protection, as the first biologist in an agency of primarily engineers. He developed strong scientific programs to protect water quality, which led to a Maine Lakes Working Group, made up of state agencies promoting management of Maine’s lakes and ponds.
In 1974, Scott formed the Maine Volunteer Lakes Monitoring Program, leading to four decades of data from hundreds of lakes. Under Scott’s leadership, staff at DEP developed a biological monitoring program assessing water quality and a nutrient management model regulating development, both among the best in the country.
When Scott retired from DEP in 1988, he became executive director of the Maine Low Level Radioactive Waste Commission, working to find a long-term storage site for low-level radioactive waste from Maine Yankee. His 1995 retirement brought him to Colby College, where he taught environmental science for two years before becoming deputy commissioner of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
In 2000, as executive director of Project SHARE, Scott helped create river watershed councils for five major rivers. In 2003, he was appointed to the Board of Environmental Protection, a citizen board providing oversight to the DEP, where he served eight years, eventually as chairman.
A board member of the Seven Lakes Alliance of the Belgrade Lakes region, Scott has donated most of his 100-plus-acre farm as a conservation trust.
Banks was named director of the Penobscot Indian Nation’s Department of Natural Resources when the Nation was first recognized in 1980. A graduate of University of Maine with a degree in forestry,he became the department’s first employee and continues today as the only director it has had. He runs a department of eight programs.
The Penobscot Nation, under Banks’s leadership, has protected human health and the environment through comprehensive water quality monitoring and many projects reducing runoff along the Penobscot River and other waterbodies. Banks also has overseen cleanup of 440 contaminated acres on Nation lands.
Banks has been a steadfast advocate for protective water quality standards in the Penobscot and other waters where Penobscot Nation members fish for sustenance. He was lead negotiator of the Penobscot River Restoration Trust, which began in 1999 with a goal to re-balance hydro-power and restore sea-run fisheries on the river. Through this monumental effort involving the Nation, federal, state and NGO partners, two obstructing dams were removed and a fish byway was constructed allowing 11 fish species, including the Atlantic salmon, to return. Since then, thousands of diadromous fish species have returned to the river and tributaries, providing lasting sustenance for tribal members and the general populace.
As commissioner of the Maine Indian Tribal State Commission for 31 years, Banks is the longest serving commissioner in commission history. He also served on the National Tribal Environmental Council, EPA New England’s Tribal Operations Committee, the East Regional Tribal Conservation Advisory Council, the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society, the National Indian Policy Center, and Maine Rivers. In 2015, Banks became the first indigenous member of the US delegation to the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization annual international meeting.
Because of Banks’ 39 years of leadership, the Penobscot environmental program is widely recognized as a model for tribes across the nation.