[TN-Bird] Gary Myers -- 'Dean of Wildlife Directors'
- From: Wallace Coffey <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: 1-A TN-Birds <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2002 13:27:55 -0400
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
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TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
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