The National Association of State Land Reclamationists (NASLR) gave out awards at its annual conference held last fall in Bozeman, Montana.
NASLR awards a $1,500 scholarship to a full-time student that focuses on the area of mined land reclamation or a closely related field. The 2016 scholarship was awarded to Florence Miller who just started her graduate work at Montana State University to pursue a master’s degree in land resources and environmental sciences. She conducted her undergraduate studies at California Polytechnic State University and earned a bachelor’s degree in Soil Science. For her thesis, she will be examining the potential sources of uranium that currently contaminate drinking water on the Crow Reservation in Montana.
The 2016 Dean Spindler Reclamationist of the Year award winner was Daniel Kestner with the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy. He is the consummate professional in GIS and mapping applications related to mine land reclamation. The Dean Spindler Reclamationist of the Year award was established to recognize exemplary work done by state regulatory professionals in the field of mined land reclamation.
