To honor a former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge Friday was renamed to the Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge.
“It’s fitting that it’s being named for Sam,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Regional Director Cindy Dohner. “This is the first place he went fishing with his father, when he was five years old. He was very visionary. The passion he had for fish and wildlife conservation was unique and infectious. He worked very hard to ensure that future generations would be able to experience the same types of things (as he did at the Refuge).”
Hamilton was sworn in as the agency’s 15th director in September of 2009 and was serving as director when he unexpectedly died in February of 2010.
A 30-year employee of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Hamilton began his career at the Refuge as a 15-year-old in the Youth Conservation Corps, before serving in a variety of positions, including regional director of the Southeast region.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service representatives noted he was “instrumental in the extensive recovery and restoration efforts required following hurricanes Katrina and Rita,” as well as in restoration work in the Everglades.
The Noxubee Wildlife Refuge was established in 1940.
Endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers, alligators, bobcats, quail, white-tailed deer and wild turkeys are among some of the wildlife inhabiting the Refuge’s 48,229 acres of bottom land and upland woodlands.
The refuge also houses about 15,000 waterfowl — including American widgeons, gadwalls, mallards and wood ducks — during the winter.
“The Wildlife Refuge here has a wonderful lake and within that area, there’s actually a rookery where birds go and nest,” said Dohner. “You can canoe in the lake and fish in the lake and see the birds.
“There are alligators there and bats and an environmental education center open to the students, in a cooperative working relationship with the school systems,” she added. “And research is done in cooperation with Mississippi State University. There’s an opportunity for people to go and just enjoy nature, the topography. And there are wonderful trails and a wonderful visitors’ center that explains the refuge and the types of wildlife you’ll see there.”
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