Sept. 24 – Fred Wooley named Environmental Visionary | Heraldrepublican

FREMONT — The 101 Lakes Trust presented Fred Wooley with the Environmental Visionary Award on Sept. 16 during its annual meeting at Trine State Recreation Area.

TSRA is the birthplace of the 101 Lakes Trust, a nonprofit created by the Steuben County Lakes Council to facilitate the protection of a former Christian camp from potential development.

“It was 20 years ago,” Wooley said. “I brought in all the different players.”

Sitting at the table were local conservation advocates, including representatives of the Steuben County Lakes Council, Nature Conservancy and ACRES Land Trust. Indiana Department of Natural Resources heads John Davis, John Bergman and Terry Coleman were in the Pokagon State Park Nature Center meeting room as well.

Camp Calvary was up for sale, and a number of options were floated to protect the woods and prairies beside Gentian Lake, one of the last habitats for cisco fish in northern Indiana. Ultimately, the Ralph and Sheri Trine family purchased it in 2006. They gifted the 200 acres to the State of Indiana in 2007 as an extension of Pokagon State Park.

During those years, Wooley was Pokagon’s interpretive naturalist, a position he served in for 35 years. An Illinois native, Wooley holds a degree in zoology and environmental education and lives in rural Fremont. He is an avid birder and has coordinated Steuben County’s annual Christmas Bird Count for the Audubon Society for many years.

Wooley was once the caretaker of ACRES Wing Haven Nature Preserve and has served on the McClue Reserve Board and Steuben County Humane Society Board of Directors, among other community outreaches. He continues his natural resources work with Blue Heron Ministries, a Steuben County based land restoration organization.

101 Lakes Trust President Janet Albright said this year’s Environmental Visionary Award went to “someone very special.” He truly is a visionary in his field, she said.

The plaque recognizes Wooley as a “champion of all things wild, natural and cultural, especially in Steuben County.”

Wooley is the fourth Environmental Visionary to be recognized by the 101 Lakes Trust. Past recipients are Betty-Lee Hepworth, who was honored with the award posthumously in 2023; Pete Hippensteel, 2022; and Ryan Matthews, 2021.

Wooley is an outdoors columnist for KPC Media newspapers. His work is featured the first Thursday of the month on the Outdoor Page in some of those papers.