Autumn Tamaracks, Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest. Photo by Jeff Henry.

Fred Clark stepping back from work with Wisconsin’s Green Fire

Fred Clark, Wisconsin’s Green Fire

After serving in many different roles within Wisconsin’s Green Fire (WGF), Fred Clark is stepping away to focus on other work. We are grateful to Fred for all his work with WGF over the years!

Fred was WGF’s Executive Director from 2019 to 2023 after being one of the founding board members. Fred also was Project Director of WGF’s Farm Sustainability Rewards Project from 2023 to 2025. He has also played an important role in WGF’s Public Lands and Forestry Work Group.

One of Fred’s lasting legacies at WGF is our Opportunities Now papers.

The Opportunities Now papers are WGF’s topic-focused white papers that go in-depth connecting conservation science and policy issues. The full series of papers is available on the WGF website under WGF Publications. A few examples include:

• Wisconsin Forests at Risk: Engaging Wisconsinites in Another Century of Forest Conservation
• PFAS in Wisconsin Drinking Water: A Summary of Current Detections and their Implications for Wisconsin
• Imbalance of Power: How Wisconsin is Failing Citizens in Conserving Natural Resources and Protecting our Environment

Fred helped build WGF into a respected science-based organization with a reputation for data driven, objective information for all people in Wisconsin from individual community members to elected leaders to use in crafting environmental and conservation policy positions.

Fred’s career spans much more than his leadership at WGF.

For the bulk of his career, he worked as principal consultant and owner of Clark Forestry, building on experiences as a forest ecologist for The Nature Conservancy and a Senior Forester for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Fred served in the State Assembly from 2009 to 2014. This experience led him to success working with members of both political parties when he became WGF’s Executive Director. From 2014 to 2017, he served as the Executive Director of the Forest Stewards Guild, a national conservation organization.

In addition to these roles, Fred has held many leadership positions in Wisconsin-based and national organizations. To name a few: the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board, the American Forest Foundation, the Wisconsin Council on Forestry, Trees for Tomorrow (a Haitian-led agroforestry project in Mirebalais, Haiti), the Wisconsin Council on Tourism, and The Baraboo Range Preservation Association. He won the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation’s Legislator of the Year Award for his work on Wisconsin’s Managed Forest Law.

From Stories to Solutions event on climate held by the WI Academy and WGF at Kemp Station in May 2023. Left to right: Jess James, Fred Clark, Nancy Turyk, Ron Eckstein, Tom Jerow, Linda Parker. Photo by Elisabeth Condon.

Many WGF members honored Fred when he stepped down from the Executive Director position.

Read the full set of comments in the poster here. Click the image to enlarge and zoom in.

A small sample of the scores of comments Fred received:

“Thanks for helping Wisconsin’s Green Fire grow into a stronger voice for conservation.” -Tom Hauge

“Fred, you took WGF to a higher level.” – Nancy Larson

“Fred, great job leading a fledgling organization into a voice to be listened to and respected.” – Michael Williamson

“Your leadership has helped to bring Wisconsin’s Green Fire to the forefront in our state as a place to come for trusted scientific information and how to implement management issues using that information.” – Karen Mesmer

“Fred, your leadership has moved WGF at an incredible pace from an idea to becoming an established voice of conservation in Wisconsin.” -Mike Meyer

Kudoboard for Fred Clark, 2023

Meleesa Johnson, WGF’s current Executive Director adds:

“I remember the first time I met Fred, in 2010, when he attended a recycling meeting in Portage.  He was the newly elected assemblyperson from Portage. I was struck by the way in which he listened to understand the complexities of recycling markets and related information. Fred has used that same patient approach to building WGF, weathering the ups and downs of the non-profit world. Thank you, Fred, for believing in WGF!“

WGF First Annual Meeting in 2017