An effort to explain how the landscapes of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem may change in the coming decades has received a $100,000 Camp Monaco Prize.

The Camp Monaco Prize is intended to support integrated scientific research and public education initiatives in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to inform, inspire, and enhance biodiversity conservation in the United States and around the world.

On Thursday, the Camp Monaco Prize Partnership named a team led by Monica G. Turner of the University of Wisconsin-Madison as the 2019 prize winner. Her collaborators include Rupert Seidl and Werner Rammer of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, Austria and Zak Ratajczak of University of Wisconsin-Madison. Graduate students include Kristin Braziunas and Tyler Hoecker, also of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The goal of the winning project, titled “Anticipating and Envisioning Future Landscapes of Greater Yellowstone,” is to envision and share with the general public how landscapes of Greater Yellowstone are likely to change during the 21st century.

The Camp Monaco Prize, first awarded in 2013 and again in 2016, is an initiative of an international partnership bewteen the Buffalo Bill Center of the West’s Draper Natural History Museum, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, and the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation-USA.

For the triennial prize, the partners invited proposals from around the world; winners were selected by a scientific jury that included a distinguished assemblage of scientists, scholars, public officials, and public outreach professionals.

Turner’s proposal was selected unanimously by the Prize Jury.

“This proposal edged out other fine proposals because of the broad scope and impact of the project and the innovative and thoughtful approach to public outreach,” said Charles R. Preston, jury chair and curator emeritus and senior scientist for the Draper Museum.

Peter Seibert, the Center of the West’s executive director and CEO, said they’re excited to award the research grant to Turner and her team.

“This prize recognizes truly cutting-edge research and work relating to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem,” Seibert said. “We are anxious to see and share with our visitors the information from this study.”

The Camp Monaco Prize is named for a hunting camp established near Yellowstone National Park in 1913 by Prince Albert I of Monaco (Prince Albert II’s great-great grandfather) and William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody. That trip resulted in extensive press coverage and discussions of the American wilderness.

The Prize will be officially awarded in a ceremony at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West on Sept. 20 by representatives of each of the partner organizations.