Hillary Rosner, a freelance reporter, won for her piece in High Country News about the razorback sucker, an endangered fish in the Colorado River that once was abundant and now is dependent on continuing human intervention for its survival. “It’s a particular honor to win for this story because it touches on so many topics I love reporting on—biodiversity, resource management, human ingenuity,” Rosner said. “I remember being out there in the field thinking, ‘I have the best job in the world.’”
In her tale of the razorback sucker, Rosner noted that despite an alphabet soup of conservation and recovery plans, there are fewer fish in a smaller range. There have been turf wars between conservationists and sport-fishing advocates over management of fish species in the river. And it is now apparent that without constant management, the razorback sucker will be unlikely to survive. “Hillary Rosner’s meticulous field reporting and graceful writing illuminates the central dilemma in endangered species protection,” said Nancy Shute, a contributing editor to U.S. News and World Report. “What to do with creatures who can no longer survive without human intervention?”
