The Teton Conservation District is proud to announce Dr. Mike Merigliano and Linda Merigliano as the recipients of the 2026 Teton Conservation Vision Award. Together and individually, the Meriglianos have spent careers deepening the community’s relationship with the lands and waters of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Dr. Mike Merigliano

Dr. Merigliano is a lifelong conservationist in the Tetons who has made a lasting impact on people, resources, and the institutions that care for them. He draws from many fields — ecology, botany, geology, hydrology, soils, and photography — with a fluency that is hard to overstate.

Mike has supported Teton Conservation District in numerous ways, including vegetation data collection on Bridger-Teton National Forest grazing allotments and developing Ecological Site Descriptions for tall forb communities. He has also led dozens of expeditions into the remote corners of our public lands to retake historical photographs to compare vegetation community changes.

Linda Merigliano

Linda spent 34 years as a recreation and wilderness manager with the Bridger-Teton National Forest, becoming one of the most trusted and respected public lands managers in the region. Her career is defined by a rare combination of deep technical expertise and skill at working with people, navigating a host of recreation conflicts throughout this region with patience, transparency, and a persistent belief that engaged communities make good decisions.

Linda’s contributions to this landscape are extensive. Among them, she was instrumental in establishing organizations that added lasting resources to the forest, led wilderness planning for the Jedediah Smith Wilderness, and helped shape the trail and recreation systems that locals and visitors rely on today.

Original reporting: Buckrail (Jackson WY) — read the source article.