After 34 years of service, University of Wisconsin–Green Bay Professor Emeritus Hallet J. “Bud” Harris is stepping down from Wisconsin Sea Grant’s Advisory Council. During that time, Harris served as chair of the council for 13 years and provided expertise on the bay of Green Bay ecology.
His involvement with Wisconsin Sea Grant began even earlier than that. First Wisconsin Sea Grant Director Robert Ragotzkie supported Harris’ Green Bay research projects and created a Green Bay subprogram that ran for many years.
Bud Harris, submitted image
“If not for Sea Grant, my focus on Green Bay wouldn’t have happened,” Harris said. “A lot of funds were committed to my research and to other researchers who were looking into the ecological health of the bay.”
Harris described his time on the advisory council as, “Great! The diverse Wisconsin geographic connections of people on the council and the diversity of their professions really worked well.”
During his UW–Green Bay teaching career Harris earned many awards. He also amassed a collection of more than 1,400 publications, reports and theses on the bay’s ecology, which is housed in the UW–Green Bay library archives.
“It is gratifying to see how foundational research can result in positive changes for the bay. It’s important for Sea Grant to keep reminding the public that research matters,” Harris added.
With his wife Vickie, Harris worked with the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission, Great Lakes scientists, Green Bay resource managers and stakeholders to create an ecosystem restoration case study, which became the forerunner to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resource’s Remedial Action Plan for lower Green Bay and the Fox River. The plan was the first of 43 restoration plans in the Great Lakes basin to be approved. It set the bar for stakeholder engagement, involving more than 100 people on eight technical and citizen advisory committees.
For more information on the couple’s careers, please visit this previous Sea Grant story. Harris’ thoughts about serving on the advisory council are noted in this additional story.