Fisheries & Habitat Conservation

Bryan Arroyo, Assistant Director

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Special Bulletin

In celebration of Women’s History Month, meet a few incredible women throughout March -- from Anchorage to Atlanta -- who are making history with the Fisheries Program.

Linda Kelsey caught this fine halibut recently in Homer, Alaska.

Linda Kelsey
Southeast Regional Office, Atlanta, Georgia

We started our Women’s History Month profiles in Anchorage, Alaska, and close out in Atlanta, Georgia.

Linda Kelsey is the Assistant Regional Director for Fisheries. She oversees the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Fisheries Program for the Southeast Region headquartered in Atlanta. Her bailiwick includes 10 States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Linda directs the conservation work of 14 National Fish Hatcheries, 7 Fisheries Conservation Offices, and the Warms Springs Regional Fisheries Center which includes the Fish Health and Fish Technology Programs. She has been with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since 1979 and has worked on numerous fisheries and aquatic habitat restoration programs at field stations, the Washington headquarters, and at the Southeast Regional Office where she’s been since 2000. She earned a B.S. degree in Biology and a M.S. degree in Marine and Estuarine Sciences from the University of Maryland.

When not a work you might find her still associated with water—either on it, in it, or under it. Linda enjoys boating, fishing, and diving.

See more Women's History Month profiles

Nevada native, biologist Lisa Heki, handles a native Lahontan cutthroat trout.

Lisa Heki
Lahontan National Fish Hatchery Complex, Nevada

Fish biologist Lisa Heki hails from the Great Basin. Born and raised in Nevada, she continues to enjoy the outdoor experiences that the Great Basin Desert provides. The unique aquatic habitats tucked away in secluded basins provided her early exposure and enjoyment of water, wildlife, and fishing with her parents and siblings. Now she and her husband and son take advantage of all the outdoor activities provided by the Sierra Nevada Mountains near their home.
Lisa has a degree in Aquatic Biology and graduate education in Conservation Biology and has spent her entire career dedicated to the conservation of the aquatic resources of the Great Basin and Mojave deserts. She is the manager of the Lahontan National Fish Hatchery Complex which is immersed in the conservation of two rare fishes, the Lahontan cutthroat trout and cui-ui, and the watersheds they rely on.
The Complex has 22 innovative and dedicated employees that she is proud to work with every day. They all enjoy the challenge of working to understand aquatic ecosystems, collaborating with applied researchers, and building conservation strategies with partners and communities that support native fishes.

See more Women's History Month profiles

Pioneers
Dr. Mamie Parker

*Pioneer Mamie Parker*

By John Bryan

The time is four decades ago.

Mamie Parker—this year’s salutatorian of Arkansas’ Wilmot High School—searches for a topic for her graduation speech. This African-American girl—the youngest of an 11-child family in one of the poorest counties in the nation—doesn’t know that she will one day live in the nation’s richest county and administer a $250 million budget, 2,400 employees, 300 field stations and much more as the Assistant Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Mamie considers what has shaped her young life. At the top of the list are her mother and the outdoors—themes that will become touchstones for future speeches: for Harvard, for the Aspen Institute, for Congress, and for the Bill Gates Millennium Scholars.

Mamie considers her mother, Cora Parker: a single-parent sharecropper who has given her children an appreciation for the value of people and a drive for education. “If you think education is expensive,” Cora would say, “try ignorance.”

America’s Great Outdoors and conservation education

By Denise Wagner

*Wolf Creek NFH’s Amanda Patrick talks to a student about animals collected in a nearby Kentucky stream. Credit Shelia Kirk*

The National Fish Hatchery System
Volunteer Act of 2006 mandated that the Fisheries Program increase awareness of the conservation work
delivered at Fisheries Program facilities through incorporation of outdoor classrooms and other
conservation education programs. The Fisheries Program has provided quality conservation educational opportunities at the community level
for decades.

As called for in President Obama’s
America’s Great Outdoors Initiative,
the Fisheries Program connects with today’s young generations by engaging families in conservation. Working in cooperation with
volunteers, partners, and formal Friends groups, the Fisheries Program delivers a wide array of
formal and informal conservation education programs both on and off Fisheries field
stations at national and community levels.

With thousands of outreach and educational events every year, the Fisheries Program reaches well over one million youth alone. Biologists and professional educators communicate conservation issues through innovative, science-based, hands on learning, incorporating programs such as Biologist in Training; Kids in the Creek; and Salmon Fest. Through many of our 154 facilities nationwide, people of all ages experience inspired plants and bugs, and science and conservation. These educational experiences plant the seeds of stewardship that may blossom into conservation careers.

Last updated: May 4, 2012