BCNP Member Wins Environmental Leadership Award
BCNP member, Artie Ann Bates (2nd from right) with award winners at the Kentucky Resources Council gathering. Other winners from left to right: Craig Williams, Gerry James, Frankie Geralds
BCNP powerhouse Artie Ann Bates received the inaugural Tom FitzGerald Exemplary Environmental Leadership Award at the Kentucky Resources Council annual meeting in November 2025. This award, named for the Kentucky environmental attorney many of us know as “Fitz,” honors those who demonstrate exceptional leadership in their efforts to advocate for the environment, but who also listen to and stand with impacted communities. Below is the statement given when Artie was presented with the award. Congratulations, Artie!
Kentucky Resources Council Statement
Artie Ann Bates is a lifelong advocate for environmental justice and community health in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. Her advocacy work is an open invitation to all who want to heal the land and its people. A psychiatrist by training, Artie Ann practiced for many years in the community where she was raised, caring for her neighbors with both professional skill and deep compassion.
For decades, she has stood on the frontlines against destructive surface mining practices in Appalachia, speaking and writing about the profound environmental, social, and health impacts of coal extraction on her community. Her roots in Letcher County run deep: she lives in a 150-year-old log cabin built deep in the holler that has been home to four generations of her family. Together with her late husband John, she was an active member of the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations, embodying a shared belief that protecting the land is a form of love and legacy.
Today, Artie Ann brings passion and clarity to her work with Concerned Letcher Countians (CLC), a grassroots organization resisting federal prison development in Letcher County. Her approach is revolutionary in its seamless weaving of abolitionist principles and the rematriation of the land into local, place-based activism. Tireless and deeply committed to her roots, she convenes weekly meetings that have become the beating heart of the community’s organizing efforts, where a handful of dedicated neighbors continue to hold back a major federal prison project through persistence, love, and strategy.
Living in a holler surrounded by former and active mining sites, with a deep understanding of how an economy built on extraction has left the people of Eastern Kentucky to deal with poverty, poor health, and a degraded environment, Artie Ann grounds her advocacy in the lived realities of her home. Stopping a federal prison in Letcher County is just one extension of Artie Ann’s community care. Together with her allies, she sees environmental justice as a guiding North Star, building coalitions across generations.
Through her steadfast leadership, Artie Ann reminds us that protecting the land and caring for one another are inseparable acts of hope. Her work embodies a rare balance of radical vision and tender care—holding her community together in the kindest, most determined way. It is with deep gratitude and admiration that we honor Artie Ann Bates for her decades of courage, compassion, and commitment to environmental justice in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky.
— Ashley Wilmes, Director of Kentucky Resource Council
