Recipients are listed according to the year in which they received the award:

• 2020 – Dr. Russell Mittermeier & Cristina Mittermeier, conservation biologist; marine biologist & conservation photographer
• 2019 – Shirley Sherwood OBE, botanist, writer, botanical art conservationist
• 2018 – Dr. Sylvia Earle, marine biologist, conservationist
• 2017 – J. David Bamberger and Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve; Frank Yturria and the Frank Yturria Family Ranch; and the Texas Christian University Ranch Management Program
• 2016 – Carter P. Smith, Director of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
• 2015 – Dr. Seymour Sohmer, botanist
• 2014 – Dr. Thomas E. Lovejoy, tropical biologist and respected environmentalist
• 2013 – Robert K. Watson, U.S. Green Building Council LEED specification originator
• 2012 – Ted Turner, CNN founder, entrepreneur, and environmentalist
• 2011 – John Cain Carter, Brazilian rancher and conservationist
• 2010 – Ramona Seeligson Bass, wildlife conservationist
• 2009 – Edward O. Wilson, Ph.D., biologist
• 2008 – Peter H. Raven, Ph.D., botanist and author
• 2007 – Ruth Carter Stevenson, philanthropist and conservationist
• 2006 – Russell E. Train, environmental statesman
• 2005 – Winthrop Paul Rockefeller, Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas
• 2004 – John Graves, author
• 2003 –  David Bramwell, Ph.D., director of Jardín Botánico Canario, Canary Islands
• 2002 – Samuel A. Cooke, one of Hawaii’s foremost conservationists
• 2001 – The Honorable Juan Carlos Navarro, Mayor of Panama City, Panama
• 2000 – Texas Parks & Wildlife Commission
• 1999 – Jane Goodall, Ph.D., renowned chimpanzee researcher
• 1998 – Sir Ghillean Tolmie Prance, Ph.D., director of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England
• 1997 – Mrs. Lyndon Baines (Lady Bird) Johnson
• 1996 – The Honorable José María Figueres, former president of the Republic of Costa Rica
• 1995 – Richard Evans Schultes, Ph.D., Harvard University, world’s greatest plant explorer of the 20th century, and posthumously, to Cyrus Longworth Lundell, Ph.D., for his work in native Texas plants and his discovery of an ancient Mayan city