The Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology's 2012 publication Information Pamphlet 6, "Coalbed Methane Basics: Ten years of lessons from the Powder River Basin, Montana," by Elizabeth Meredith, John Wheaton, and Shawn Kuzara has won the John C. Frye Memorial Award from the Association of American State Geologists and the Geological Society of America.
The John C. Frye Memorial Award was established in 1989 by the AASG and the Geological Society of America to support the growth of environmental geology, which has steadily risen in prominence over recent decades. The Award is given each year to a nominated environmental geology report published in one of the three preceding calendar years either by GSA or by a state geological survey. A monetary award and a certificate to each author is presented at the AASG Mid-Year meeting, held at the GSA annual meeting. This year the meeting will be held in Denver in October.
Nominations identify a geologically based environmental issue, provide sound and substantive information pertinent to the problem, relate geology to the issue, and present information directly usable by geologists, other professionals such as land-use planners and engineers, and ideally also by informed laypersons. The committee assesses uniqueness, significance as a model, and overall worthiness.
John C. Frye joined the USGS in 1938, went to the Kansas Geological Survey in 1942, and was its Director from 1945 to 1954. He was Chief of the Illinois State Geological Survey until 1974, and was GSA Executive Director until his retirement in 1982, shortly before his death. John was active in AASG and on national committees, and was influential in the growth of environmental geology.
John Metesh, Director of the MBMG, said: “We are very proud of our group from the Billings Office of the MBMG. As the title suggests, this publication represents a lot of good work over many years.”