In 2024, the chapter created a new award in honor of longtime member Elward Engle called the Elward Engle Conservation Award.   This award is meant to be given to a person or organization that exhibits outstanding efforts toward conservation related to TU’s mission to protect our cold water resources and improve trout habitat in the central Wisconsin area.  Only Elward Engle has received this award to date.  I am pleased and honored to announce that the 2026 Elward Engle Conservation Award is going to Steve DeVitt. Steve has been a dedicated DNR employee for 17 years, most of which were on the Wild Rose trout stream habitat crew.  For several years, Steve has coordinated the Redd Survey program.  He has taught volunteers how to identify and record Redds, managed the survey crews, decided which rivers to survey, and directed volunteers to those streams.  He then compiles the data and shares it with biologists, including himself, and with scientists who use it to make decisions on trout management.  I think Steve would be the first one to say that a lot of people helped him along the way.  This is true, but every successful endeavor requires a leader, and for this program Steve is that leader.  For the mission we have here at Trout Unlimited, this program is maybe the most effective scientific program of all time.  When you think about it, what’s more important than actually seeing the trout spawning on the Redds and recording the data?  That is our goal, and it’s what we are all about here at TU.

    This award is not just for his work on the redd survey but also for being a reliable,  steady fixture at all of the CWTU workdays, leading a crew of volunteers working on stream habitat improvement and fishability, and for everything he does for trout on the stream sites and behind the scenes.