Philip Hyde Grant Criteria

The Philip Hyde grant is awarded every year with applications opening in the late fall and is an award for $2500. This past year, through generous donations, the Nature Photography Foundation was able to provide two $5000 grants.

One of the 2024 recipients, Tom Enderlin, is working on the project “Living with Jaguars in the Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre Caño Negro, Costa Rica”. Tom believes that by using photography and documentation he can show the world how coexisting with large predators like jaguars in fragmented mixed-use habitats is critically important for the future of life on our planet. This story is one of conservation of a globally threatened and/or endangered species, but it also aims to show that there is an anthropogenic benefit to having wild neighbors like the jaguar.

The grant will be awarded to individuals who are working on an existing project designed to improve, protect or preserve the condition of the environment.

  1. Recipient does not need to be a NANPA member.

  2. Still photography must be an integral component in the environmental project. Projects which incorporate multimedia (video, film, time-lapse stills and audio) are eligible for the grant, but still photography must be at the core of the project.

  3. The environmental project may involve either wildlife or habitat protection or conservation.

  4. The environmental significance and the viability of the project will be the major selection criteria in awarding the grant. The grant applications are reviewed and scored by a panel of reviewers. A total of 100 points are available on each review sheet. These two criteria account for 80 of those points.

  5. The grant is not to be used as seed money for research or to purchase basic photography or computer equipment.

  6. The environmental project must already be underway.

  7. The environmental project need not occur in North America, but North American projects will receive 5 points on each panelists review sheet.

  8. All elements of the project must be performed within the legal parameters of local, regional, state and federal governments.

  9. Applications are only accepted online. Supporting materials may be attached electronically to the application and/or URLs may be provided in the application as additional resources regarding the project.

  10. A grant recipient may apply for the following year’s grant, whether for a new project or a project which previously was awarded the Philip Hyde Conservation Grant. Preference will be given to applicants who have not yet received the Philip Hyde Conservation Grant.

  11. A closing report shall be furnished to the Nature Photography Foundation no later than 90 days from the time the grant money has been completely allocated toward expenses. If all of the grant funding has not been allocated by March 31, 2025, an annual report is due at that time, followed by a closing report once grant funds have been completely expended.

  12. We strongly encourage recipients to attend NANPA’s Nature Photography Summit and Trade Show to accept the grant award. Because attendance would be at the recipient’s expense, it is not mandatory.

  13. Should the grant not be awarded in a given year, due to a lack of qualifying grant proposals, the grant money may either be awarded as an additional grant in the following year or be used by the Nature Photography Foundation for an environmental education project of its choosing.

  14. The Nature Photography Foundation may alter the Philip Hyde Conservation Grant qualifications and/or award criteria in any way which enhances the Nature Photography Foundation’s mission.

Past Recipients

2024 - Miguel Grageda, Binational Bonds: Protecting the endangered Sonoran Pronghorn

2024 - Tom Enderlin, Living with Jaguars in the Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre Caño Negro, Costa Rica

2023 - Joshua Asel, The Yurok Tribe's Spiritual Relationship to California Condors

2021 – David Moskowitz, Big River: Exploring the Contemporary Columbia River Watershed
2020 – Mary Lundeberg, Share the Shore with Beach-nesting Birds and their Young
2019 – Clay Bolt, Sky Island Bumble Bees: The Affect of Climate Change on Life at the Top of the World
2018 – Mac Stone, Old Growth: Ancient Swamps of the South
2017 – Morgan Heim, Trepass: The Environmental Costs of Marijuana Cultivation on Public Land
2016 – Krista Schlyer, Anacostia River
2015 – Alison M. Jones, No Water No Life
2014 – David Herasimtschuk, Hidden Rivers: The Freshwater Biodiversity of the Southern Appalachia
2012 – Jaime Rojo, San Pedro Mezquital River, Mexico
2011 – Beth Huning, Turning the Tide: San Francisco Bay Area Wetland Restoration
2010 – Paul Colangelo, Sacred Headwaters, Sacred Journey
2009 – Joe Riis, Pronghorn Passage
2008 – Amy Gulick, The Tongass National Forest, Alaska
2007 – Jenny Ross, The Salton Sea
2006 – Florian Schulz, Yellowstone to Yukon: Freedom to Roam
2006 – Stan Buman, Loess Hills: Restoring the Image
2005 – C.C. Lockwood, The Vanishing Marsh: Two Views
2004 – Ned Therrien, Monadnock Conservancy
2004 – Wendy Shattil and Robert Rozinski, Jewels of Colorado
2002 – Rich Reid, Gaviota Coast, California
2001 – Rich Reid, Gaviota Coast, California
2000 – Thomas Mark Szelog, Save Our Seals
1999 – Gary Braasch, World View of Global Warming