The Board of Governors has the responsibility of reviewing nominations for the Hall of Fame. They meet once per year, typically in summer, to go over every completed nomination and to pick the five most outstanding to submit to the WCHF Board of Directors and Voting Member Organization Representatives for selection of the following year’s Inductee(s) into the Hall of Fame.
Curt Meine (2022-2025)
Curt is a conservation biologist, environmental historian, and writer based in Sauk County, Wisconsin. He serves as Senior Fellow with the Aldo Leopold Foundation and Center for Humans and Nature; as Research Associate with the International Crane Foundation; and as Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Meine has authored and edited several books, including the award-winning biography Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work (1988/2010) and The Driftless Reader (2017). He served as on-screen guide in the Emmy Award-winning documentary film Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time (2011). In his home landscape, he is a founding member of the Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance.
George Meyer (2023-2025)
George Meyer served as Executive Director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation from 2003 to 2021. He served as a Visiting Professor in Environmental and Government Studies at Lawrence University for two years; Worked at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for thirty-two years: ten years as an attorney, twelve years as Administrator of the Enforcement Division, eight years as Secretary and two years as a Special Assistant to the Secretary. George served in leadership roles in the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and the Environmental Council of the States. He was inducted into the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame in 2017.
Jane Severt (2021-2023)
Jane retired from her position as Executive Director of Wisconsin County Forests Association in October of 2019, a position she filled for 12 years. Prior to that role Jane worked as a county forester in Ashland County, County Forest Administrator in Ashland County and County Forest Administrator in Lincoln County. Her first full-time position in forestry was as Wisconsin Forest Inventory Supervisor with Lumberjack RC&D Council. Jane is a member of Society of American Foresters, Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association, Wisconsin Woodland Owners Association and a number of conservation organizations. She currently serves on UWSP’s Forestry Faculty Advisory Committee and Board of Directors for Forest History Association of Wisconsin.
Vicki Elkin (2023)
Peter David (2023-2025)
Peter worked 36 years as a wildlife biologist with the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission,
where he assisted GLIFWC’s member tribes in the implementation of their off-reservation, treaty-reserved rights. He received his education (bachelors and master degrees in Wildlife Ecology) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and from the tribal elders and members for whom he worked. At GLIFWC, he worked with a variety of natural resources ranging from wild rice to wolves. He currently serves on the Boards of the International Wolf Center and the Timber Wolf Alliance, and is active in Wisconsin’s Green Fire.
John Bates (shadow 2023, term 2024-2026)
John Bates is the author of ten books and a contributor to eight others, all of which focus on the natural history of the
Northwoods. He’s worked as a naturalist in Wisconsin’s Northwoods for 33 years, leading an array of trips and giving talks all designed to help people further understand the remarkable diversity and beauty of nature, and our place within it. He has served on the Board of Trustees for the Wisconsin Nature Conservancy, River Alliance of Wisconsin, and the Wisconsin Humanities Council, and he currently serves on the Board of the Northwoods Land Trust.