Secretary Salazar Lauds Senate's Confirmation of Sam Hamilton as Director of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Sam Hamilton, new director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today praised the Senate’s confirmation of Sam D. Hamilton as Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“Sam is a veteran manager, innovative leader, and strong advocate for sound science,” Salazar said. “His three decades of experience with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s mission, responsibilities and programs will enable him to firmly guide the agency in its critical work conserving our nation’s wildlife and its habitat and addressing the impacts of climate change.”
A career senior biologist and manager with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Hamilton had been director of the agency’s Southeast Region in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was responsible for the oversight and management of more than 350 federally listed threatened and endangered species and 128 national wildlife refuges. As senior operating executive, he had full strategic planning and management responsibility for a $484 million budget and a 1,500-person work-force that operates in 10 states and the Caribbean.
Hamilton’s leadership fostered creative solutions and innovation that led to the establishment of a carbon sequestration program that has helped biologists in the Southeast restore roughly 80,000 acres of wildlife habitat. His emphasis on partnership bolstered the Service’s fisheries program and helped establish the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership to restore vital aquatic habitats across the region. This partnership is a key piece of the National Fish Habitat Action Plan.
Hamilton provided leadership and oversight to the department’s restoration work in the Everglades, the largest ecosystem restoration project in the country, and oversaw recovery and restoration work following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which devastated coastal wetlands, wildlife refuges, and other wildlife habitat along the Gulf of Mexico.
Prior to becoming regional director, Hamilton served as assistant regional director of the ecological services in Atlanta and the Service’s Texas state administrator in Austin.
Hamilton graduated from Mississippi State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology in 1977.
Tackling climate change in Tennessee’s State Wildlife Action Plan
Cover of Tennessee's Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy. Credit: Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
Tackling climate change may seem like an impossible feat, like trying to find a tiny needle in an enormous hay stack. But, if you take a small handful of hay and begin sifting through it, suddenly the challenge seems less monstrous. This is exactly how our Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency planning team felt as we attempted to incorporate climate change in Tennessee’s State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP). As part of the State Wildlife Grants Program (SWG), each state had to complete a plan that identified species and habitats of greatest conservation need and outlined the steps to conserve them.
Early in January of 2005, Our SWG planning team met to begin discussions on species and habitat threats for inclusion in Tennessee’s SWAP. Our team was quite diverse and possessed the knowledge and years of experience needed to accomplish the task at hand. However, when it came to the topic of climate change, we scratched our heads. Climate change was beginning to get headlines in the national media and, to be honest, that was about the extent of our knowledge. We agreed climate change was a potential threat to Tennessee’s wildlife, but we also realized the enormity of the issue and decided to tackle this topic some other day.
High Ouachita River Levels Postpones Floodplain Reconnection Project
Credit: USFWS
Monroe, La. -- Due to high water on the Ouachita River and flooding of the 16,000-acre Mollicy Unit, the East Side of Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuge, near Bastrop, La., is closed to ensure public safety.
The unusually high river level is overtopping the obsolete 30-foot tall levee at the refuge that has been targeted for partial removal. Overtopping or even catastrophic failure of the levee does not pose any threat to surrounding communities, and has nothing to do with the flood control levee system protecting the area.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Announces 183 Projects in Southeast Region Under President’s Economic Recovery Plan
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Atlanta, Georgia – From the Lower Mississippi River’s Delta to North Carolina’s coast and south to the waters of the Caribbean, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will undertake 183 construction projects in the agency’s Southeast Region focused on energy efficiency, habitat restoration and facility improvements at national wildlife refuges, fish hatcheries and other lands, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced today.
These projects total approximately $56.5 million for improvements within the Southeast.
