U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE

NAMES NEW NORTH CAROLINA STATE SUPERVISOR

Brian Cole, a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has been named state supervisor for the Service's ecological services program in North Carolina. He will be stationed in Asheville, North Carolina. For the past nine years, Cole has been supervisor of the Service's Asheville Field Office, where he was responsible for assessing the impact of Federally funded or authorized activities on fish, wildlife, wetlands, and endangered species in western North Carolina. He also oversaw the listing and recovery of plants and animals under the Endangered Species Act in North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

As State Supervisor, Cole will now supervise both the Service's Asheville and Raleigh Field Offices and the Red Wolf Recovery Project. The Raleigh Field Office assesses the impact of Federal projects on fish, wildlife, wetlands, and endangered species, evaluates the impact of environmental contaminants on fish and wildlife, coordinates the Partners for Wildlife Program, and administers the Service's coastal and estuarine program in North Carolina. The endangered red wolf, a species that had been extinct in the wild since the early 1970's, was reintroduced in eastern North Carolina in 1987 and in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1991.

Before coming to North Carolina in 1988, Cole spent eight years in the Service's Washington, D.C., headquarters where he held several positions including branch chief in the Office of Endangered Species, Assistant to the Deputy Director, and project leader for environmental contaminants in the Office of Biological Services. He previously served in the environmental contaminants program in the Service's Minneapolis Regional Office and worked in water resources planning for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Memphis, TN. Cole earned a B.S. in biology at the University of Central Florida in 1973 and an M.S. at Oklahoma State University in 1975.

Cole, his wife Barbara, and their daughters, Hilary (7) and Merritt (2) will continue to live in Black Mountain.

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Release #: R97-45

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