2005 Oakes Award Winners

Columbia Journalism School Names Winners of Environmental Journalism Prizes

Prestigious John B. Oakes Award to Harper’s and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for Excellence in Reporting

November 21, 2005, New York, NY -- The Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University announces that Harper’s Magazine and The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel have been named the winners of the 2005 John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism.

In awarding the prizes, this year’s judges singled out Erik Reece, author of “Death of a Mountain” in Harper’s Magazine and Dan Egan, a reporter for The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for “Troubled Waters, the Great Invasion” and honor their works for the “exceptional contribution to public understanding” of environmental issues.

“This is the first time that the Oakes Awards honored separate magazine and newspaper entries,” said Arlene Morgan, dean of prizes and programs at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism and director of the Oakes Awards, which moved to the school this year from the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“When we started the judging process, we felt that it was unfair to judge the newspaper and magazine stories on the same platform since the mediums are so unique and deserved to be recognized for their own styles and editorial formats,” Morgan said. Each of the two winners receives a $5,000 prize.

Two other stories – Elizabeth Kolbert’s “The Climate of Man,” which appeared in The New Yorker, and a project written by staff at The Los Angeles Times, “Environmental Politics,” were named second-place winners, each carrying a $1,000 award. The Times project was done by Tom Hamburger, Alan C. Miller, Julie Cart, and Henry Weinstein. All of the winners will be invited to present their work during a reception and panel discussion on the impact of environmental reporting Wednesday, February 1, 2006 at Columbia’s journalism school in New York City. The panel will be open to Columbia students and invited guests.

Winners Covered Environmental Losses, Health

Reece’s “The Death of a Mountain” was recognized for its strong narrative, in which the author chronicled over the course of a year the gradual disappearance of the mountain and the species that inhabited it as a result of strip mining. “It took me to a place I'd never been and taught me much I didn't know,” said Oakes judge Dorothy Brown, an enterprise editor who specializes in science and medicine at The Philadelphia Inquirer. “I came away from the piece with a strong appreciation of the tradeoffs of our energy-driven society.”

In the newspaper category, Dan Egan was recognized for the fascinating details and clarity of thought in his project “Troubled Waters, the Great Invasion,” a groundbreaking three-part series on the health of the Great Lakes. The series has also won the National Headliner Award for Health-Medical-Science Writing and the Inland Press Association Award for Explanatory Reporting.

“We often read about how we have wrecked this or that ecosystem,” said Morgan. “This series reveals the consequences of man's attempts to improve on the environment and the ripple effect of those actions -- on a huge American resource, the Great Lakes, over many years.”

History and Significance of the Oakes Award

In the past 11 years, the award has recognized works ranging from a News & Observer investigation of political favoritism in North Carolina's hog industry (which later won the Pulitzer Prize) to a Seattle Times story revealing that industrial wastes contaminated with heavy metals were used on farms as fertilizer.

Morgan said the graduate school accepted the invitation to administer the award because it offered the school an opportunity to feature the work in an annual forum that would emphasize the importance of environmental reporting. "The Oakes Award gives us a chance to view the scope of the excellent work that is being done in the field. We hope the program we plan around this year’s award winners will encourage our students to pursue this challenging and under-covered topic.” Morgan commented that the award fits well with the school’s new Masters of Arts program in science reporting and with its educational mission to train young journalists in this field. Morgan is also collaborating with Columbia’s Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC) to create additional professional workshops on the topic.

The Oakes Award, which honors the career of the late John B. Oakes, a New York Times editor and pioneer in environmental journalism, has gained a reputation among journalists as a premier print environmental writing prize. A Times columnist, editorial writer, editor of the editorial page, and creator of the op-ed page, Oakes created the award in 1993 at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a leading environment and conservation advocacy organization, where he was a founding trustee. The award is underwritten by an endowment created by the Oakes family and friends. The judges represent a cross section of the scientific and journalism communities.