Celebrating, Advancing and Sharing Wisconsin's Conservation Legacy
George H Gard Jr, the artist who drew the portraits for the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame plaques for many years on October 4, 2016. He had a rich and interesting life, including a long stint with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
WCHF Governor Bill Berry wrote: “George was a quiet and unassuming man with many talents. His home’s walls were covered with his artwork.” Read his obituary here.…
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1923 – 2010
Inducted 2010
“It’s only after being aware of what’s around us that we develop an understanding of what nature is like.” –Ruth Hine
Hine’s work at the DNR left an indelible mark on Wisconsin conservation history. As editor and then chief of the Research and Public Information and Publications Section of the Bureau of Research, she oversaw the technical editing and writing of research reports from 1949-84. She also crossed over to the popular press to pen articles on natural resources topics for magazines and other publications.
It was a male-dominated field when Hine first began her duties. A 1959 Milwaukee Journal article about Hine proclaimed in a headline, “Woman finds place in conservation work.” Many other women found a place, too, …
Read more1872 – 1939
Inducted 1998
“The whole system of forest taxation is wrong, for it puts a premium on forest destruction” – Edward M Griffith
Edward Merriam Griffith was appointed Wisconsin’s first state forester on his 32nd birthday, February 8, 1904. A native of Brooklyn, NY, Griffith entered Yale with the class of 1895 as an engineering student. He left Yale during his senior year to study forestry in Germany because at the time there was no school of forestry in the US.
In 1898, the Department of Agriculture Chief of Forestry, Gifford Pinochot, hired Griffith to promote the concept of management in the national forests. Under Pinochot’s direction, Griffith lead special assignments to study forest conditions in the Hawaiian Islands, the Philippines, Japan, India, …
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