STARKVILLE — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has named a new manager for a national wildlife refuge in Mississippi and one in Alabama.
Steve Reagan is project leader for the Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge near Starkville, Miss., and the Choctaw National Wildlife Refuge in Gilbertown, Ala.
He has worked with the national wildlife refuge system for 12 years. For the past three, he was a deputy supervisor who helped to lead more than 250 staffers on 39 refuges in Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
“Steve has a wide range of experience in refuge management,” said Cindy Dohner, the Service’s southeast regional director. “He has done everything from starting a Friends Group for Bayou Teche Refuge in Louisiana, to developing a scientific research program on the Southwest Louisiana Refuge Complex, to participating in rescue efforts following Hurricane Katrina.
“His hands-on experience will really benefit these two refuges.”
Originally from Massachu-setts, Reagan also has worked for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. Park Service. He also has been deputy manager at the White River National Wildlife Refuge in St. Charles, Ark., and worked at several refuges in Louisiana, where he began working for the Fish and Wildlife Service in 2000.
The 48,000-acre Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge is a refuge and breeding ground for migratory birds and other wildlife, and is also managed for the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker.
The 4,218-acre Choctaw National Wildlife Refuge is in southwest Alabama along the Tombigbee River north of Mobile. It provides wood duck brood habitat and a protected wintering area for waterfowl. Since the early 1990s, a pair of eagles has nested there each winter.
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