女士们先生们, welcome to the 切萨皮克的冠军 and thank you for joining us at this beautiful and storied place.

我是乔尔·邓恩，十大赌博正规老平台协会的总裁兼首席执行官. 如果你之前不熟悉我们的工作, Microsoft has now given you a sense of how the 十大赌博正规老平台 is using technology to change how land management and conservation are done.

When the world’s largest software company calls to feature your small nonprofit on the global stage, 你知道你正在开创一种革命性的东西.

正如科技的使用改变了银行业一样, health care, 以及通信部门, 使它们更快、更高效, 我们认为，它也必须为环境作出同样的努力.

We are gathered together tonight to recognize extraordinary leaders from across the Chesapeake for their cutting edge and tangible accomplishments that protect and restore our natural systems and cultural resources.

我们的获奖者和他们的工作突出了切萨皮克是一个两党合作的地方, multi-generational, 多元文化优先-因为它的美, for our economy, 为了我们的健康和历史. 这也向我们表明，每个人都有责任保护海湾.

我要感谢十大赌博正规老平台协会的董事会, 还有我的导师帕特里克·努南, for entrusting me with the extraordinary opportunity to lead this organization, and I’d like to thank our staff for their hard work to deliver conservation results for our region.

I’d like to thank some of our organizational sponsors who are here tonight and who have made this event and our programs possible:

• Elinor K. Farquhar
• 邦廷家族基金会(马克·邦廷)
• 海伦娜基金会(吉姆 & Sylvia Earl)
• 英特尔(Steve Harper)
• Hogan & 路弗尔斯(道格·惠勒、菲利普·卡茨、马克·麦康奈尔)
• Randy Larrimore
• Beveridge & 《十大赌博平台排行榜》(本·威尔逊、保罗·哈根)
• Benchworks (Thad and Renee Bench)
• Cherry Baekart (Scott Denlinger)
• 海湾上的海灵顿(安娜·切尼)
• 海灵顿港北(汉弥敦钱尼)
• 还有安德鲁和安·罗斯

我还想特别感谢几位与会者:

• Mike Reynolds, Acting Director of the National Park Service, and his wife Amy
• 尊敬的约翰·华纳, a hero and a friend, along with his daughter Virginia Warner who recently helped us protect a key piece of property on the Rappahannock River.
• 莫莉·沃德，弗吉尼亚州自然资源部长
• Jeannie Riccio, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s Deputy Chief of Staff, handling the environment
• Chuck Hunt, Superintendent of the National Park Service’s Chesapeake Bay Office and the John Smith Chesapeake Trail, 还有他的妻子戴娜
• Last, but not least, my mother, sister and uncle – demonstrating our family’s strong support for conservation.

I want to thank all of our awardees for their work and for being with us tonight. 我将描述他们的成就, 哪些是相互补充和加强的, 请他们每个人简短地发言.

And finally, I’d like to thank the Mount Vernon Ladies Association for allowing us to celebrate the 切萨皮克的冠军 at the home of our nation’s greatest citizen.
________

1853年，路易莎·坎宁安在波托马克河上旅行. She saw Mount Vernon in the bright moonlight and realized it was a very special place, 一个对美国很重要的地方.

Mrs. 坎宁安明白乔治·华盛顿, 以及他的世界观, 导致了这个伟大国家的持续繁荣, and therefore Mt. 弗农需要被保护起来.

路易莎启发了她的女儿, Ann, to gather her friends — all women — and asked them to engage as many people as possible to save this place. 他们这样做了，而且还在继续这样做.

Similarly, the Chesapeake and its great rivers are part of our nation’s culture. Its land, water and history, nurture us, inspire us, 有时安慰我们, 就像切萨皮克人几千年来的生活一样.

As stated by many Presidents, beginning with Ronald Reagan, the Chesapeake is a national treasure. 的确，它和大峡谷一样宏伟，和黄石公园一样美丽. 约翰·史密斯船长在1607年肯定认识到了这一点, when he wrote that “Heaven and earth had never framed a more perfect place for man’s habitation.”

I have spent my entire adulthood charging after a vision to protect our planet, 尤其是切萨皮克湾, because I believe it’s special and that we have a responsibility to maintain ecosystem function and preserve biodiversity for our children’s future. 这将确保他们拥有和我们一样的机会.

With a 2-year-old-daughter, I have only gotten more passionate about this important and worthy cause. My wife, Heidi, 再过几个月我就要生第二个孩子了, 这无疑会让我的灵感倍增.

事实是切萨皮克号现在面临的问题是惊人的. 我们面临着严峻的污染挑战, habitat loss, invasive species, 气候变化和公众准入受限. But fortunately, we are seeing several hopeful signs of the Bay’s restoration. 水的清晰度是几十年来最好的. Rockfish, oysters and blue crab populations are rebounding and we have 132 new access sites in the watershed.

This is important because a healthy and accessible Bay is essential to a healthy economy and society. 例如，马里兰州的户外娱乐活动贡献了14美元.1000亿美元的消费支出和超过10万个就业岗位.

Only by protecting the Chesapeake and our environment do we enable our citizens to realize their full potential in business and in family life as parents or mentors.

和在座的各位一起工作, we’re proud to have played a leadership role in creating a national trail – the Chesapeake Trail, a national park, 国家纪念碑和州立公园. Now we’re working on helping to designate the first national marine sanctuary in the Chesapeake just down the river. 这既保护了资源，又创造了经济机会和意识.

人类对土地的影响越来越大, water, air and climate, 我对这些成就和获奖者的承诺感到振奋. 作为21世纪的环保企业家, 我特别兴奋的是, 我们正在进入一个新的保护时代.

There is no question that emerging technology can unlock epic conservation collaboration, 这将导致清洁的水和拯救土地的问题. 而这需要正确的数据, 我们可以节省每个人的时间和金钱, enhance growing ecosystem markets and use mathematics and evidence to advance our goals.

Not even George Washington could have ever imagined that one day we’d have the massive computing power of the cloud in the palm of our hands. Think about it. Your smartphone is millions of times more powerful than all of NASA’s combined computing in 1969.

That same decade, President Kennedy created the term “moonshot” when he literally inspired our nation to send a man to the moon and back.

保护社区——我们的社区——需要一个登月计划. This year, one of my heros, a Pulitzer prize winning author and noted biologist EO Wilson [请参阅2022年2月23日发布的声明. 威尔逊对科学种族主义的支持, garnered significant attention when he called for the goal to devote half the earth to nature.

To do this here, we will need to protect or restore roughly 50% of the Chesapeake Bay watershed and in precisely the right place.

现在受保护的还不到一半, 实现这一目标需要我们加大油门, not the brakes. 我们需要像你们这样的人具有史诗级的目标、方向和勇气.

Just like Mrs. 坎宁安在波托马克河那晚意识到，这是国家的当务之急. This moonshot needs exceptional leadership from people like Governors Hogan and McAuliffe, 我们的企业领导者，比如微软, 非凡的山女士们. 弗农和我们所有人.

If everyone in this room unites for conservation, we can accomplish anything we put our minds to.

谢谢你参加我们的节目.