Our Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame Ceremony will “go virtual” on April 24, 2021, as we honor our newest Inductee, Gary Eldred. In addition, our three 2020 Inductees—Stephen Born, Jens Jensen, and Stanley Temple—will be honored since the 2020 Induction Ceremony was cancelled last April during the pandemic. This year’s ceremony marks the induction of our 100th conservation hero along with three others. Everyone is invited to participate and help us celebrate this milestone.
From left to right: Gary Eldred, Stephen Born, Jens Jensen and Stanley Temple
How It Will Work
On April 24, the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame will hold a series of four free Induction Ceremony events held live on a virtual platform throughout the day. Each event will be 45 minutes to one hour long. Special guests will provide background on each Inductee and recognize their significant contributions. Inductees will speak about their conservation legacy and share their life’s work through images and stories. The public is invited to participate in one or more of the ceremonies held throughout the day. More information will be added to the 2021 Induction page as it becomes available.
Sponsorship of Induction
Join our generous sponsors!
Sponsorships are invited from organizations and individuals beginning at the $250 level. Sponsor donations will offset event costs and create opportunities for Sponsors to show support for our conservation heroes. Creating virtual events for the first time provides an opportunity to reach a wider audience than ever before and produce video clips to serve as historical archives of the inductees. More information about Sponsorship.
Inductees
- Gary Eldred is a self-taught citizen conservationist whose passion for prairies and volunteer work to preserve them led to the formation of The Prairie Enthusiasts for which he has served as leader of both the organization and field activities.
- Stephen Born is a well-known UW-Madison professor who specialized in environmental planning and worked on almost every aspect of water management, the Great Lakes, inland lakes, groundwater, rivers and watersheds, in addition to loving all things trout.
- Jens Jensen is a landscape architect of the Upper Midwest who developed public parks, preserves, and private estates, focusing on indigenous plants and the location’s ecological features, who also founded the “school of the soil” in Door County known as The Clearing.
- Stanley Temple is a UW-Madison professor who studied endangered birds, habitat fragmentation, invasive species and other factors leading to species declines, and now serves as a Senior Fellow with The Aldo Leopold Foundation, researching, writing and speaking about Leopold.
News release about Gary Eldred’s Induction and the 2021 Induction Events honoring Gary Eldred, Stephen Born, Jens Jensen and Stanley Temple.