Round Top, NY – Tracy Knott of Columbia County was selected as the 2026 recipient of the New York State Outdoor Writers Association’s (NYSOWA) M. Paul Keesler New York Outdoor Citizen Award for all that she has done to preserve our outdoor heritage.  She has devoted many years and much effort to involving others, especially youngsters, in outdoor sports and an appreciation of the outdoors and sporting tradition.

For well over 20 years, Tracy has selflessly promoted and shared her love of the outdoors sporting industry with others. Tracy is the first woman to become president of the Tri-Village Rod & Gun Club, a position she has held for the past 15 years. During her tenure as president, she has helped grow the club’s membership exponentially. She has actively promoted hunting and fishing, and conservation efforts to its members, as well as several other clubs and organizations she belongs to.

She has worked with DEC’s trout stocking program and provides many opportunities for young people at the club. She has run the youth day and fishing derby for over 20 years, and assists with the youth archery group, three separate events for the youth. Because of Tracy’s leadership, she received the 2018 Columbia County Sportsman Federation’s Award for exemplary service in the promotion of the outdoors and the Second Amendment.

Knott has a long list of other achievements including:

Tracy is one of those people that is always out there quietly doing for others. It is important to her to keep people informed. She does not seek recognition for what she does. While the benefits of her behind the scenes work are seen, people often don’t realize that she is the one who made these things happen.

Tracy actively communicates information to educate, inform, and provides opportunities to promote conservation on behalf of several clubs and groups, and has for at least the past 20 years. She is a social media manager for the Columbia-Greene Sportsman Association, Columbia County Sportsman Federation, as well as the TVRGC. Through these social media pages, Tracy keeps not only the clubs, but the entire county informed of sporting events occurring locally, as well as in many other counties. She also keeps the community informed on new hunting, trapping and fishing regulations, seasons, reports on the ice thickness around the county for those interested in ice fishing, and lets the hunting community know when our voices “need to be heard”.

Tracy is truly dedicated to educating people, keeping them informed, and helping people enjoy hunting and fishing sports safely. She is this year’s winner of the M. Paul Keesler Award as New York’s Top Outdoor Citizen.

The 2026 NYSOWA M. Paul Keesler New York Outdoor Citizen Award is presented to an individual or organization that has effectively raised the public’s awareness of outdoor recreational opportunities and conservation issues in New York State.  The award was created to honor worthy individuals and organizations, at the same time perpetuating the name of one of NYSOWA’s dearest members.  The late M. Paul Keesler spent nearly five decades promoting and conserving the outdoor wonders and recreational opportunities within New York State.  Beginning with outdoor columns for the Utica Observer Dispatch and progressing to the popular New York Sportsman magazine, Keesler, and his magazine’s contributors, enlightened, and educated readers statewide and beyond to the wild outdoor treasures of the Empire State.  Keesler also wrote books on canoe fishing in New York waterways, including on his beloved West Canada Creek and Mohawk Valley.