2026 Rocky Mountain National Park Stewardship Award Presented to Christopher Kennedy

Rocky Mountain National Park is pleased to announce the recipient of the 2026 Stewardship Award. This award recognizes individuals who have made long-lasting, impactful, and significant contributions to helping resolve critical management questions or challenges while demonstrating a commitment to the National Park Service mission and core values.

Chris Kennedy in the field. NPS

Chris Kennedy has conducted research in Rocky Mountain National Park since the late 1990s, making significant contributions to fisheries management. For nearly 30 years, his work—along with that of his volunteers and colleagues at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—has strengthened park managers’ understanding of fish population dynamics, including reproduction, responses to environmental variability, and genetics, and habitat through long-term monitoring of water bodies.

Fisheries management field work in Rocky Mountain National Park. NPS Photo

Mr. Kennedy’s work demonstrates the practical application of science for resource management and underpins current fisheries and water resource strategies in the park. Working with a core group of volunteers, he has led fish population surveys, mercury sampling, and disease testing that directly informs recreational fishing management and supports native cutthroat trout restoration.

In addition, Mr. Kennedy has maintained a long-term stream temperature monitoring network that provides critical habitat information while also conducting post-disturbance water quality assessments following wildfires and floods. His efforts have produced a repository of more than 20 years of water quality information, and he has consolidated these long-term datasets and historical research on park water bodies into reports used to support informed management decisions.

Beyond his scientific contributions, Mr. Kennedy has advanced community science and public engagement through a volunteer program he designed and led. His leadership, communication, and commitment have built lasting capacity for research and stewardship. His work will continue to support effective fisheries and water resource management in Rocky Mountain National Park.

We are pleased to honor Chris with this Stewardship Award in recognition of his substantial contribution and commitment to the mission of Rocky Mountain National Park.

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