In years past, Latter-day Saint Earth Stewardship bestowed an award called “Steward of the Year” to someone who demonstrated exceptional earth stewardship in their community. During the pandemic, the Steward of the Year celebration was put on hold, but we are very excited to finally be bring it back!
This year‘s recipient is Volker Molthan of Germany. Volker was nominated by the chair of Treuhandschaft für die Erde (LDSES Germany), Ralf Grünke.
Ralf says, “Volker is a trusted and valued community leader and builder. One example is his service as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND) and and as spokesman for BUND’s national Working Group on Waste and Natural Resources. With over 650,000 members nationwide and 2,300 local and regional chapters, BUND is one of the largest environmental associations in Germany today.
He inspires others with his hands-on, tangible environmental stewardship efforts. His active involvement with butterfly monitoring may serve as an example. Volker has been supervising a butterfly monitoring project for 20 years and is also active as the regional coordinator for the Enzkreis/Norschwarzwald [Black Forest] region of the initiative. Butterfly monitoring in Germany started in spring 2005. Year after year, volunteers record all diurnal butterflies during weekly inspections along fixed routes. The resulting inventory data documents the development of the butterflies at local, regional and national levels and can be compared with those from other European countries, where observations have been taking place for decades.”
Volker applies his faith and expert knowledge to increase awareness of earth stewardship issues. We are grateful for his example.
Congratulations to our 2024 Steward of the Year!
Watch Volker’s acceptance video below: