ABOVE: Fresh off a trip to Argentina, 2026 Outdoor News Person of the Year Award Winner Doug Hartke stands with some of what he was able to hunt. In addition to his conservation and volunteering efforts, Hartke is an avid hunter and outdoorsman overall. Submitted photo.

FAIRMONT – Fairmont conservationist, outdoorsman and volunteer Doug Hartke was awarded 2026’s Person of the Year by Outdoor News.

The journey for Hartke started in high school, where he was naturally drawn to the outdoors.

“There’s nothing better than going out on a marsh on a fall morning and watching the world wake up,” he said. “The sunrise over a marsh and birds and everything else waking up.”

From there, he chose to get more involved in the organizational side of the outdoors.

“I got on the board of the Fox Lake Conservation League (FLCL), I believe my senior year of high school,” Hartke said. “Through high school I did the FFA Natural Resources program. My family wasn’t an outdoors family, but somehow I really enjoyed both fishing and hunting. I started working with the Conservation League first, and then I got on the Ducks Unlimited committee.”

Hartke would then spend the 90s and 00s on both boards, developing knowledge and skills of the local area and working on conservation.

In 2015, Hartke attended a meeting which included Pheasants Forever, Ducks Unlimited, Martin County Conservation Club and FLCL among others. It was here he would get the opportunity for a broad new project.

“Trying to determine where we should try to purchase and add parcels of land into the infrastructure of wildlife management systems, we took a county map, and I think we realized we have very limited funding sources. The idea was to work where we already have acres, already have habitat and we’ve been expanding the existing wildlife management areas,” Hartke said.

This planning session led to them applying for their first Conservation Partners Legacy grant through Lessard Sams Outdoor Heritage Council, with Hartke working as a grant coordinator.

After receiving a grant in 2015 for $1 million, they were denied a second grant in 2016. After this rejection, Hartke and other area conservationists banded together to revamp and partner with others to make more land conservation possible.

“We’ve become a partnership with The Conservation Fund and Ducks Unlimited,” he said. “The Fox Lake Conservation League is not alone. We have partners that are professionals. The Conservation Fund acts as our staff, and it helps me with grant writing, helps me with the due diligence of all the land protection issues, the appraisal, the survey, drainage agreement issues.”

Since then, the FLCL has received grant funds every year going back to 2017. This year alone, they received $3.7 million, and overall they have been granted $23.5 million in funds to purchase over 2,000 acres. This includes over four dozen restored wetland basins and 700 acres of restored grasslands.

“We’ve doubled the amount of public habitat in Martin County since 2016,” Hartke said.

Overall, Hartke is a member of Martin County Pheasants Forever, Martin County Conservation Club and the Trimont Conservation Club in addition to Ducks Unlimited and the FLCL. With all of his connections, he has helped create a loose coalition called the Martin County Alliance, which can band together if opportunities arise that call for united resources and support.

“I would say we’re the envy of every county in the state,” Hartke said. “We all work together. Some Pheasants Forever organizations [elsewhere] hate their local Ducks Unlimited. Some DU’s hate the local pheasants. There’s always competition amongst us, but I would tell you the Martin County Alliance is second to none. When you’re trying to build a coalition, and you got the support of that many groups, it’s amazing how that helps you.”

Hartke found out through Outdoor News Writer Tori McCormick that he had been selected for the award. He said he found the experience humbling.

“I have a lot of respect for our groups,” Hartke said. “I want to reiterate it’s not just me. If I didn’t have the support of the Fox Lake Conservation League and Ducks Unlimited, there’s no way I would do the work I’m doing. I don’t want it to all be on me.”

For right now, Hartke has several projects in the works, including two more purchases of land for wildlife management and writing the grant request for 2027 from Lessard Sams. One thing’s for sure, he’s not stopping anytime soon.

“I’ll be 60 this year, so I think I’m in the heart of my career,” Hartke said. “My daughter’s at college now, and you think things will get easier and less work, but it seems like there’s always something. The phone rings with something. When somebody calls me with a potential new project, it just reinvigorates my desire to keep doing it.”