National Geographic Explorer Carlton Ward Jr. to Obtain 2026 Eliza Scidmore Award for Outstanding Storytelling

WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 15, 2026) — Carlton Ward Jr. will obtain the National Geographic Society’s 2026 Eliza Scidmore Award for Outstanding Storytelling, recognizing a profession outlined by means of visible narratives to light up threatened landscapes and wildlife and translate them into pivotal conservation outcomes.

A National Geographic Explorer and award-winning conservation photographer, Ward has devoted a long time to an progressive storytelling technique, advocating for protected wilderness areas that coexist with working lands. Through his tireless work as founding father of the Florida Wildlife Corridor challenge and Wildpath, Ward has documented an enormous array of the pure world, uncovered the unifying tales that carry individuals collectively by way of shared landscapes, and helped remodel public will into tangible legislative motion.

Drawing on the confirmed conservation mannequin established by his work in Florida — most not too long ago the instrumental Path of the Panther challenge — his advocacy immediately impressed the unanimous passage of the Florida Wildlife Corridor Act in 2021. This landmark laws designated half of Florida as a precedence for wildlife hall conservation and has since allotted greater than $2 billion towards defending a statewide community of private and non-private lands, connecting important wildlife habitats to stop fragmentation and securing Florida’s wildlife and consuming water for future generations.

“Carlton’s masterful work proves something we’ve always known at the Society: stories change the world,” stated Jill Tiefenthaler, CEO of the National Geographic Society. “Through his lens, we see the beauty, struggle and resilience of nature with fresh urgency and care. Carlton turns images into influence and stories into real, lasting change. For his ability to move people from awareness to action, we are honored to present Carlton with the 2026 Eliza Scidmore Award for Outstanding Storytelling and are so proud to support his work in Florida and beyond.”

Building on the success of the Florida Wildlife Corridor Act, Ward — an eighth-generation Floridian making an instance for the ability of storytellers portraying the locations the place they reside — is now scaling his impression globally. He is main Connected Planet, a brand new joint initiative with the Society and Wildpath to fight international biodiversity loss. The Connected Planet program will help Explorers all over the world in creating focused, place-based tales that speed up the identification and safety of wildlife corridors.

Through their efforts, they intention to bridge fragmented habitats, construct consensus, present a baseline to tell coverage outcomes, and make a compelling case for shielding networks of linked lands and waters. The challenge is designed to immediately advance the worldwide “30×30” purpose of defending a minimum of 30% of the planet’s lands and waters by 2030 — a essential initiative to make sure resilient ecosystems are conserved to sort out the extinction disaster, stabilize international local weather and maintain communities for future generations.

“My work is rooted in a commitment to using photography as a vehicle for advocacy, especially when the connectivity of our natural world is at stake,” stated Ward. “I am driven by a desire to reconnect the planet and, in doing so, reconnect people to nature. I have found that storytelling is often the missing catalyst to transform science into action, so to truly save these landscapes, we must go beyond documentation by visually defining the path for wildlife while influencing the public policies required to protect them. It is a true honor to receive this award, and my hope is that the Connected Planet project provides a blueprint for how to turn local stories into lasting ecological protection.”

Through his images, Ward continues to advocate for the safety of the Florida Wildlife Corridor and is now following the migratory pathways of marine species to develop the imaginative and prescient of wildlife corridors into his residence waters alongside Florida’s Gulf Coast. While main the worldwide Connected Planet challenge with the Society and Wildpath, Ward continues to function a founding fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP) and fellow of the Explorers Club.

His ongoing impression has been acknowledged with quite a few honors, together with the Conservation Leadership Award from the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida, an Emmy Award for the National Geographic movie “Path of the Panther,” and nomination to the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. Ward’s images are exhibited in museums and galleries and broadly revealed in books and magazines, together with Audubon, Smithsonian, Nature Conservancy and National Geographic.

The Eliza Scidmore award — named for the author and photographer Eliza Scidmore, the primary girl elected to the Society’s Board of Trustees in 1892 — acknowledges people whose work focuses on immersive storytelling to advance our understanding of the environmental and conservation points we face, with the last word purpose of supporting societies in making the most effective choices for a more healthy planet. Ward will obtain this honor throughout the annual National Geographic Storytellers Summit in February 2026. To be taught extra about Ward and different Explorers’ work, go to our web site here.

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