In an earlier post I discussed famous Wisconsin conservationists and, as a small tribute, I mentioned by grandfather Gerald Czarnezki, a long time Milwaukee County Parks worker and naturalist who was a proud member of the first graduating class of the conservation education program at the Central State Teachers College at Stevens Point, now UW-Stevens Point.
In comments to that post, readers mentioned other noted Wisconsin environmentalists and one comment (admittedly made by my mother, who as a good mom actually reads my blog) felt compelled to list my dad, Joe Czarnezki, a former state senator who was the recipient of numerous “Clean 16” awards from Wisconsin’s Environmental Decade and author of the law which made Wisconsin the first state in the nation to legislatively ban toxic shot for waterfowl hunting.
Needless to say I am very proud of my family’s environmental history.
Since my family has now been implicated, in addition to my grandfather and father, I want to acknowledge the other conservationists/environmentalists/naturalists in the family. I don’t want to embarrass my relatives, but I’m quite proud of them, and it should be of no surprise after reading this, how I ended up interested in environmental law and natural resources policy. While I’m sure I’ll miss folks (and don’t want to list their names since they know who they are, and I don’t want to invade their privacy), my second cousin works in the Forestry Division of the WI Department of Natural Resources, my uncle is a former Alaskan Park Ranger who also worked at South Pole, and two of my dad’s cousins are, respectively, a former biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation and natural resources planner on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. Family members are welcome to add to the list, which likely includes an additional four generations of my grandfathers that were foresters and lumberjacks.
JASON J. CZARNEZKI 