Potter receives Ragnar E. Onstad
Service to Society award
Professor Kenneth Potter was honored this
past spring at the college's faculty and staff recognition ceremony
for his work oh behalf of public environmental projects.
 rofessor Kenneth W. Potter’s
dedication to the environment extends well beyond his lab and classrooms
walls. Potter has maintained an active commitment in environmental issues
for a number of years.
His work has won him national recognition, including
his appointment as the vice chairman of the Consortium of Universities
for the Advancement of Hydrologic Sciences. The consortium, which includes
more than 80 universities and is funded by the National Science Foundation,
was founded in 2001 to foster study and research on hydrologic sciences.
Potter served as the initial chairman of the consortium’s board
of directors. He also serves as a member of the advisory council to
the Greater Everglades Restoration, one of the nation’s largest
wetlands and conversation restoration efforts.
But Potter is perhaps best known for his work on
behalf of the environment in Wisconsin and Dane County. He is a member
of the Yahara Lakes Advisory Group, established to help county officials
and the State Department of Natural Resources to improve the quality
of the Madison area’s signature lakes. The Yahara Lakes Association
recognized Potter for his work on behalf of the lakes in 2002 by naming
him its “Citizen of the Year.”
He has also worked on behalf of the North Fork Pheasant
Branch Task Force, which has worked to maintain one of Dane County’s
crucial watershed areas, the Middleton Conservancy Lands Commission,
and the Middleton Water Resources Commission. His work with the water
commission had helped the city of Middleton adopt some of the most progressive
storm water management policies in the state.
Potter has also worked on environmental issues for
the Wisconsin Wetlands Association, the UW-Madison Arboretum, the university’s
Facilities Planning and Management Office, the state DNR, the U.S. Geological
Survey, the Dane County Public Works Department, and villages and cities
throughout Wisconsin.
He also served on the steering committee for the
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters on its “Waters
of Wisconsin” program, a two-day conference held in 2002 that
featured more than 700 scientists, water resource managers, policy makers,
environmental advocates and business representatives discussing ways
to preserve the state’s water resources and aquatic ecocystems.
The conference led to
the official designation in 2003 by the state of Wisconsin as the “Year
of Water.”
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