U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service | Southeast Region News Release

December 2, 2002

Contact:
Tom MacKenzie, 404/679-7291

The Fish and Wildlife Service today announced that Lee Andrews has been selected to manage its new Ecological Services Program Field Office in Frankfort, Kentucky. Andrews, an eight-year Service veteran, has spent the majority of his career working in the Ecological Services Program. In his new position, Andrews will supervise a diverse staff of wildlife and natural resources professionals involved with federal projects and regulatory processes, endangered species management, private lands habitat restoration and management initiatives, and contaminants.

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources played a key role in establishing the new Kentucky Field Office in Frankfort. The new Kentucky Field Office will help ensure better coverage of the state’s resources and issues that used to be covered from the Service’s Field Office in Cookeville, Tennessee.

“The citizens and natural resources of Kentucky will be the beneficiaries of our new Kentucky Field Office and Lee’s leadership,” said Sam D. Hamilton, the Service’s Southeast Regional Director. “Lee has always been willing to take on new challenges, and he has a strong track record of working with communities, private landowners, and others to solve complex conservation problems in a sensible manner.”

A native of Clinton, Tennessee, Andrews began working for the Fish and Wildlife Service in 1994 and has worked on a number of projects in Kentucky, including rare species inventories in the Daniel Boone National Forest and the development of a conservation agreement at Mammoth Cave National Park. His most recent position was as Senior Fish and Wildlife Biologist in the Migratory Birds and State Programs Division in the Atlanta Regional Office. In this position, he was responsible for coordinating carbon sequestration partnerships with the energy industry to reforest priority wildlife habitats throughout the Southeast. Previously, Andrews was responsible for implementation of two endangered species-related programs in the Southeast Region. One program focused on the development of conservation partnerships with private landowners to protect or enhance habitat for rare species, and the other program encouraged early conservation of rare species in order to preclude the need to place the species on the federal list of endangered and threatened species. Andrews has also supervised an Ecological Services Field Office located at Fort Benning, Georgia, that covered Fish and Wildlife Service operations in 45 counties.

“Kentucky is a beautiful state and full of unique natural resources. My family and I are thrilled to be in such a beautiful area, and we look forward to becoming a part of the community,” said Andrews.

“I’m also excited about the work that the Kentucky Field Office will be doing,” continued Andrews. “I intend to work very hard to balance Kentucky’s economic and conservation priorities by working with landowners and our other partners on behalf of Kentucky’s natural resources.”

Andrews and his wife Amy have a 15-year old daughter, Dianna. Andrews is an avid outdoorsman and is particularly fond of turkey and deer hunting and stream fishing for smallmouth bass. He is a graduate of the University of Tennessee, where he received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Science in 1989 and a Master of Science Degree in Forestry in 1994.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System which encompasses 540 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 70 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 78 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces Federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to State fish and wildlife agencies.

For more information about the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
visit our home page at http://southeast.fws.gov/ or http://www.fws.gov/.

NOTE: You can view our releases or subscribe to receive them -- via e-mail -- at the Service's Southeast Regional home page at http://southeast.fws.gov. Our national home page is at: http://news.fws.gov/newsreleases/.

Atlanta, GA 30345
Phone: 404/679-7289 Fax: 404/679-7286

2001 News Releases