October 10, 2007

Contact:  John “Duke” Welter  715-831-9565
Erin Mooney, TU Press Secretary  703-284-9408
             
Trout Unlimited Elects New National Leadership Council Chair
 
ARLINGTON, VA – John “Duke” Welter was elected Chair of the National Leadership Council at the Trout Unlimited annual meeting in Boise, Idaho in September. Welter will serve as the Vice Chairman of the TU Board of Trustees.

 Welter, a resident of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, previously served as Secretary of the National Leadership Council of Trout Unlimited. The position of Chair is the highest volunteer position in Trout Unlimited’s national organization. 

In this role, Welter will help set Trout Unlimited’s conservation and organizational agenda.  There is a four-year term limit to the position.

Welter is a lawyer in Eau Claire and a partner in the firm of White, Welter & Schilling LLP.  He has served in the past as a member of the board of governors of the State Bar of Wisconsin, an organization of 20,000 lawyers, and serves on the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board.

He has served in every level of TU’s volunteer organization, from local chapter to state council to the national level.  He served as the Wisconsin State Council Chair from 1998-2001, the Great Lakes Regional Vice President from 2001-2003 and was the Wisconsin representative to Trout Unlimited’s National Leadership Council in 2003.   

  “John (Duke) Welter was elected by his peers to TU's highest grassroots position because he has a long history of getting the conservation job done in Wisconsin,” said Steve Moyer, TU Vice President of Government Relations.  “One of his most outstanding accomplishments is to have served as the guiding force behind TU's Driftless Area Restoration Project, a four state effort (WI, MN, IA, IL) designed to restore trout stream habitat in the region. We are lucky to have him in this position.”

 Welter has volunteered extensively with Trout Unlimited’s Ojibleau chapter in Wisconsin. He has Tbeen the recipient of numerous awards, including Trout Unlimited’s Conservation Volunteer of the Year Award in 2002 and the Wisconsin State Council’s Lee & Joan Wulff Award for Conservation Leadership in 2000.

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Trout Unlimited is the nation’s oldest and largest coldwater fisheries conservation organization, boasting over 150,000 members across America.

Date: 10/11/2007