Carroll "Buzz" Besadny, who served as secretary of the Department of Natural Resources from 1980 to 1993, will be inducted into the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame on April 19 in Stevens Point.

The Hall will also induct soil conservationist Melville H. Cohee, 1909-2001, and U.S. Sen. Paul Oscar Husting, 1866-1917, during the ceremony.

Besadny, 1929-1999, was a native of Kewaunee and spent 42 years in the Wisconsin Conservation Department as a conservation aide, wildlife biologist and DNR secretary. In 1988 the Milwaukee Journal described him this way: "Wisconsin personified, a solid citizen who tells homey stories about himself, thinks before he talks, takes his time to consider all sides, then makes up his mind, digs in and holds his ground."

Cohee was a contemporary of Aldo Leopold and worked for the U.S. Soil Conservation Service. He summed up the importance of his work this way: "If timber and heavy sod are so important in maintaining the very soil itself, why are clearing of the land and overgrazing of pastures and woodlands continued?"

Husting was born in Fond du Lac and graduated from the University of Wisconsin law school in Madison. He served as a U.S. senator from 1915 until dying in a duck hunting accident on Rush Lake in 1917. He served as chairman of the Committee on Fisheries in 1917, and was interested in water regulations.

"Each individual is the trustee of the state's navigable waters, and it is the state's duty to protect them for the best interest of all people," he said.

Hall candidates must have Wisconsin ties and have made "sustained and outstanding contributions" to conservation in resource management, environmental law enforcement, or conservation art, literature or journalism.

The induction ceremony begins at 10 a.m. in the Sentry Insurance Theater. Coffee and rolls will be served at 9 a.m., and a luncheon buffet at noon concludes the event. The luncheon requires a reservation and fee. For information, call 715-346-4992.