Joe Garstecki

Treasurer - Lakes at Stake Wisconsin.

Joe is a 37-year resident of Little Cedar Lake in Washington County, where he raised 4 children that were avid skiers and wake boarders. He earned his BBA in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and is Past President of the UWM School of Business Alumni Association. Joe is a business owner and is a current and past Board member of several local organizations.

Hans Meyer

Vice President – Lakes at Stake Wisconsin

Hans grew up on Pewaukee Lake, and after a period away, for school and work, returned and has now resided on the lake for 40 years. He also spent 22 years living on Eagle Springs Lake in southern Waukesha County. A life-long sailor, he has competed in numerous one-design and ocean racing classes in the US and Europe in addition to cruising in the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. He was twice designated All American while sailing for the University of Michigan and was one of eight selected for the US Intercollegiate Team to represent the US in a 27-match series held in the United Kingdom. Hans graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering and immediately out of school began working in collaboration with Buckminster Fuller, perhaps best known for his geodesic domes. One of Fuller’s principal tenants was that mankind needed to learn to live off its ‘income’ energy, the sun, not its ‘savings account’ energy, fossil fuels. While this was far from mainstream thinking in the 1970s and 1980s, time has added perspective. This collaboration led to the formation of a company dedicated to building wind energy systems, solar electric systems, and battery energy storage systems along with the power electronics equipment necessary to interconnect these systems to the utility grid. Today that company exists as the Power Electronics Division of S&C Electric. Later, Hans started and operated a 70 acre ‘choose and cut’ Christmas tree farm in Eagle, Wisconsin….a ‘happy’ side-line business. In the early 2000s he purchased an amphibious seaplane and earned his land and sea pilot certificates. Over the years Hans has served on the boards of the Solar Electric Industry Association, The Buckminster Fuller Institute, the Eagle Spring Lake Sanitary District and the Pewaukee Yacht Club.

Frederick Prehn

Director - Lakes at Stake Wisconsin

Dr. Frederick C. Prehn was born and raised in Wausau. He is a 3rd generation Wausau dentist and has been in practice in central Wisconsin for over 42 years, having earned his DDS degree at Marquette School of Dentistry after studying Chemistry, botany and bacteriology at both UW Marathon and the University of Wisconsin Madison. Fred, along with his wife Linda, owned and operate a 158-acre cranberry marsh located in Monroe County for over 27 years. He also has a Federal Firearms license and is the owner and operator of Docs Weapons, LLC, a specialty guns business. He has four grown children.

Fred served on Wisconsin’s Natural Resources Board for 8 years. This board is made up of members appointed by the governor and confirmed by the senate. It oversees the Wisconsin Department of Natural resources. (DNR). As a board member and chairman for three years he helped navigate the board through many issues important to the state.

Along with his busy dental practice, Fred was a member of Cranberry Growers Cooperative which represented 35 growers selling cranberry through Graceland international in 23 countries. He introduced wind and solar energy on a large scale to the cranberry industry and operated a large wind generators and solar array on his farm. He also served on the Wisconsin Cranberry Board that funds research, education, and promotion of Wisconsin cranberries.

His civic involvement is varied and broad. Fred served on and was past president of the Wausau School District Board of Education. He served on various Aspirus Wausau Hospital and state dental committees. He is a member of the Land O Lakes Airport Commissions. As a board member of the Walter Alexander Foundation he has helped make Wisconsin a better place. He is civic minded and believes in giving back to his community.

Fred is an avid outdoorsman and has held Wisconsin hunting and fishing licenses for over 55 years. He has been an active member of many conservation groups over the years such as Whitetails Unlimited, Wisconsin Waterfowl Association, and Ducks Unlimited. He has the upmost respect for our outdoors and recreation. As an Eagle Scout, Scoutmaster, and later as Samoset Council BSA President, Fred has introduced many youth to the wonders of Wisconsin’s woods and streams.

Fred is also an accomplished mountain climber who started his skills on the granite of Rib Mountain State Park outside of Wausau and Eau Claire Dells in Central Wisconsin as a child. He has climbed many 14,000-foot peaks in the western U.S. and has summited the highest point in the Americas which is located in Argentina called Mt. Aconcagua at 22,841 ft.

Dr. Prehn has many hobbies, including collecting old cars, commercial pilot , avid skier, scuba diving, hunting, fishing, shooting sports, cycling, mountaineering, and amateur radio---but nothing compares to casting musky baits or dragging a sucker on one of northern Wisconsin’s clean clear lakes in early November.

Now living in Land o lakes WI, his focus also includes clean water and keeping our lakes in Wisconsin pristine for generations.

Scott Rolfs

Secretary - Lakes at Stake Wisconsin.

Scott is a lifelong Wisconsin resident, who had the privilege of growing up on Big Cedar Lake in Washington County. As such, he has been active in fishing, scuba diving, snorkeling and underwater photography on the lake for many decades. It was in the summer of 2021 that Scott noticed significant changes to the deep weed beds on the South End of Big Cedar, namely their disappearance. A friend mentioned to him a study North Lake did, that highlighted the potential of enhanced wake boat waves disrupting underwater vegetation in water as deep as 17 feet. That began his journey to compare his extensive underwater photography from a decade ago, with the same areas in 2022 and 2023. He is a Wisconsin resident with strong private sector work experience and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School.