Thursday: DNR Warden Jeremy Peery to receive Haskell Noyes Award

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Conservation Warden Jeremy Peery has been selected as the recipient of the Haskell Noyes Efficiency Award for 2009.

The recipient is selected by the family of the late pioneer Wisconsin conservationist who created the honor in 1930 to recognize outstanding warden public service. A gold pocket watch purchased by the family will be presented to Peery during a ceremony on June 5, at Club 8, just west of Ladysmith.

Haskell Noyes, whose father was a lawyer and Superior Court judge in Milwaukee, was a World War I officer and prominent and influential member of Milwaukee’s business and civic communities during much of his life.

More than 50 years after his death, Noyes is best known for being a lead advocate for the establishment of the Wisconsin Conservation Commission -- the precursor to the Natural Resources Board -- through the Conservation Act of 1927, securing land for the Kettle Moraine State Forest, and creating the Haskell Noyes Conservation Warden Efficiency Award. The award includes a gold pocket watch with an inscription stating: “Faithful and Able Service.”

The watch has been presented to a warden by a member of the Noyes family every year since 1930.