John Dolan, President of the Bill Cook Chapter of the Izaak Walton League announced awarding Jo Seiser of Stevens Point the Outstanding Conservationist Award (2013).
Jo’s work with the North Central Conservancy Trust over the last decade identified notable accomplishments. Her involvement since 1999 spanned years of education of landowners and citizens of the value of protecting worthy lands from unrestrained development with conservation easements donated to the land trust by landowners who continued to own the land. During that time 39 easements were signed of over 3000 acres in Central Wisconsin.
As important was the training and experience of community members to create organizational infrastructure to educate landowners, evaluate possible easements and have events to share successes. Jo Seiser joined with many others to create a sustainable land trust to continue to do work of the present and the future.
Jo Seiser attended the Izaak Walton League’s awards banquet unaware that she was to receive this award. As John Dolan began his presentation, she was alerted to the fact that she was the recipient when Dolan said, “this person was a National Park Service ranger at Mt. Rainier National Park and Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.” Seiser thought it unlikely that anyone else present had worked both places without her knowledge.
Seiser was the Portage County Water Quality Specialist in the 1980s and two members of the Izaak Walton League knew well this work. One was Robert Schmitz who was the head of Environmental Health at the Health Department and Jo’s boss. And the other was friend and co-worker for Portage County, Jerry Ernst who led the County Parks Department.
Ernst said, “The Bill Cook Chapter of the IWLA was very proud to present Jo Seiser with their Outstanding Conservationist award on April 12, 2014. The yearly award started in 1969 and the first recipient was Leo Gwidt. To name a few other well known recipients over the years, they included Dan Trainer 1977, George Rogers 1981, and Malcolm & Margaret Rosholt in 1998.”
Jo Seiser was honored to receive the Outstanding Conservationist award from her colleagues of the Izaak Walton League.
