Gary Myers, executive director of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency at Nashville and a major contributor to both Tennessee and North American bird conservation, was recently named the 2002 C.W. Wataon Award winner for conservation.. The C.W. Watson Award is the highest honor and most prestigious award presented by the southeastern conservation community. It was presented during the banquet at the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies annual conference in Baltimore, MD, 26-30 OCT. In the 1990's Gary Myers broadened his leadership role to the benefit of the newly established non-game bird initiative, Partners In Flight. He served on the National Partners In Flight Steering Committee and chaired the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies' Partners In Flight Committee. He subsequently provided substantial impetus for the development of the U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan. With the emergence of national and international plans for shorebirds, landbirds, waterbirds, and waterfowl, he has provided continual leadership and guidance to the emergence of the North American Bird Conservation Initiative. Today he sits on the U.S. North American Bird Conservation Initiative Committee, the Partners In Flight Steering Committee, and the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Migratory Wildlife Committee, providing invaluable knowledge, institutional memory, insight, and more importantly vision to the dynamic work of bird conservation. For years he has stood in the center of leadership in the bird conservation community. He is a true visionary, one of those rare individuals who can see the big picture and what the possibilities are. Combined with his ability to act on that vision, he inspires others to act as well, and that is perhaps his greatest contribution to conservation, the ability to inspire others to accomplish more than they believe possible. His greatest influence in wildlife conservation has been in the arena of bird conservation. One of his crowning achievements was his leadership in the development of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, which was signed in 1986. The North American Waterfowl Management Plan ushered in a new era of private, state and federal cooperation in the conservation and management of North America's migratory waterfowl. Shortly after the signing of this plan, the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies established a North American Waterfowl Management Plan Committee and placed him in charge of the committee. In that capacity he provided leadership in the formation of joint ventures and more importantly established the mechanisms and the partnerships that resulted in state game and fish funds being transferred to Canada as a good faith effort to establish a more lasting funding arrangement. Owing greatly to his vision and leadership, that more lasting arrangement was manifest in congress passing the North American Wetlands Conservation Act in 1989. He was appointed as one of the charter members of the North American Wetlands Conservation Council and provided leadership in the development of the Council's grant program. Since 1986, the North American Waterfowl Management Plan and the North American Wetlands Conservation Act have generated more than $1.5 billion in grant and partner funding for habitat acquisition, restoration, and enhancement, impacting nearly 5 billion acres of habitat for watefowl and other wetland-associated birds, and waterfowl populations in North America have been recovered to their historic 1970's level. Gary Myers distinguished himself with a career that spans nearly 40 years as a wildlife biologist and administrator. He grew up in Texas, and began his formal education at West Texas State Teachers College. In 1956 he enlisted in the Marines and was admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy, but after two years, he married, began a family, and enrolled in Wildlife Conservation at Colorado State University. He earned a Bachelors of Science degree in Wildlife Management in 1961 and achieved a Master's Degree in Wildlife in 1963. His professional career began as a Wild turkey Research biologist with the Colorado Division of Wildlife, but he soon advanced to Big Game Supervisor. After nine years working with the Colorado Division of Wildlife, he moved to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency as Assistant Director. In 1978 he became Executive Director of the Agency. As Executive Director, he shepherded the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency through some tough financial times in the late 1970's and early 1980's and since then has directed the Agency's growth, both in terms of number of employees and their professionalism. His influence in conservation has been felt in many arenas. In fisheries, he was a key player and provided critical leadership in the effort to expand the Dingell-Johnson fund for the restoration of sport fishing. As chairman of the D-J Expansion Committee for the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, he helped spearhead a campaign to gain support for this expansion from the public, the fishery profession, the fishing and boating industries, and the U.S. Congress. His leadership, diligence, and hard work resulted in the 1986 passage of the Wallop-Breaux expansion of the D-J sport fish restoration program. Most of the above comments were taken from the presentation statment by David Waller, Director, Georgia DNR, Wildlife Resources Division in presenting the C.W. Watson Award to Gary. Waller finished the presentation by introducing Myers as the "Dean of Wildlife Directors." Wallace Coffey Bristol, TN =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation. ----------------------------------------------------- To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx ----------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx (423) 764-3958 =========================================================