The Thomas L. Quay Wildlife Diversity Award is bestowed each year to an individual who demonstrates a strong commitment to North Carolina’s nongame conservation efforts and is a leader in promoting and sustaining wildlife diversity. Nongame species are native animals that have no open hunting, fishing or trapping season.  More than 700 nongame species call North Carolina home and include songbirds, reptiles, amphibians, freshwater mussels, fish, crustaceans, and mammals.   

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) is accepting nominations for the 2024 award through March 31, 2024.  Nominators are required to submit a completed nomination form online or by USPS mail, and include a detailed essay describing the nominee’s contributions to nongame at-risk species conservation in North Carolina. Self-nominations are also accepted.  

NCWRC’s Nongame Wildlife Advisory Committee (NWAC) will recommend nominees to the agency’s commissioners. The recipient will be announced during the commissioners’ meeting by Feb. 2025. 

The award is named for the late Thomas Quay, a professor of zoology at N.C. State University and self-described “full-time volunteer and unpaid environmental activist.”  

For more information on the nomination process, contact Melinda Huebner at 919-707-0224. 

Click to nominate online, or email nominations or questions to  Melinda Huebner.

NCWRC will also accept mailed nominations to: 

N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, Inland Fisheries Division 

c/o Melinda Huebner 

1722 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, N.C. 27699-1700 

Learn more about North Carolina’s nongame species by visiting NCWRC’s Wildlife Diversity Program webpage.