Recovery Champions are U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff and their partners whose work is advancing the recovery of endangered and threatened species of plants and animals in the United States.
Legacy Region 1
Judy Lantor
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Judy Lantor is recognized as a 2017 Recovery Champion for her leadership in the conservation of Puget Sound prairie habitat and associated listed species. Over the past 20 years, Lantor's work with partners to conserve and restore grassland and prairie habitats has provided the foundation necessary to implement numerous long-term recovery actions for golden paintbrush and other prairie-dependent species. Her ability to form highly successful partnerships has led to significant accomplishments toward meeting the recovery goals for golden paintbrush, including the establishment of nine new populations and increasing the extent and viability of seven other extant populations. Lantor also helped design and implement new restoration techniques aimed at expanding and improving prairie habitat, which have benefited a number of native species in addition to golden paintbrush, including the Taylor's checkerspot butterfly and Mazama pocket gopher.
David Sischo and Cynthia King
Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources
David Sischo and Cynthia King are recognized as a 2017 Recovery Champions for their leadership in the conservation of endangered Oahu tree snails. Over the past several years, Sischo developed and implemented a strategic plan for the Snail Extinction Prevention Program that was the first coordinated approach to prevent the extinction and promote the recovery of snail species in the Hawaiian Islands. Further, his use of innovative techniques for monitoring these species in the wild and rearing them in captivity have resulted in measurable benefits in both wild and captive populations. King recognized that applied research and captive rearing of some of the rarest species of snails and other invertebrates was a necessary step toward their recovery. Thanks to her efforts, after several years of planning and budgeting, the Hawaii Division of Forestry and Wildlife Insectary and Snail Lab opened in 2016.
Legacy Region 2
Robyn Cobb
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Over the years, Robyn Cobb has demonstrated tremendous leadership in recovery efforts for endangered South Texas plants, the threatened piping plover, as well as other species. Cobb has worked tirelessly to improve landowner relations for listed shortgrass prairie species, advocate for a recovery plan, and promote actions for coastal shortgrass prairie, including her initiation of the South Texas Plant Working Group. During her tenure as a wildlife biologist in Corpus Christi, Cobb has accomplished significant conservation and recovery milestones, including coordinating and collaborating on mowing recommendations with the Navy, Texas Department of Transportation, and Nueces County Parks to preserve South Texas ambrosia and slender rush-pea in road rights-of-way and parks has resulted in increased populations. Cobb also assisted other agencies and groups in carrying out piping plover recovery efforts along the Texas Coast, and made significant contributions toward delisting the brown pelican and Johnston's frankenia.
Peter Siminski
The Living Desert
For more than 30 years, Peter Siminski has devoted himself to coordinating the binational captive breeding program and working with government agencies in both the United States and Mexico to make re-establishing the Mexican wolf in the wild a reality. In 1983, no Mexican wolves were known to exist in the wild and fewer than 50 existed in captivity. Siminski orchestrated the captive population's exponential growth and sought new institutions' support and participation as the need to house the increasing population grew to nearly 300 wolves by the early 2000s. The captive breeding program's success enabled reestablishing the Mexican wolf in the wild in Arizona and New Mexico in 1998, as well as in the Sierra Madre Occidental in Mexico in 2011. His leadership, professionalism, and devotion to Mexican wolf recovery has helped lift the species from the brink of extinction and place it on the road to recovery.
Legacy Region 3
Kim Mitchell
Georgia Parham
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Kim Mitchell and Georgia Parham are honored as 2017 Recovery Champions for their leadership in collaborative outreach and communications activities that have added tremendous value to species' recovery efforts across the Midwest. A key to recovery successes has been their work to communicate the importance of species' conservation needs to the public, media, partners, and Congress. Through their meticulous organization of information on websites, convening of experts to plan recovery communication, and use of new media such as Facebook and Twitter, Mitchell and Parham have helped to share our mission in a way that the public can understand and inspire them to work as a community to conserve our shared resources. By working as a team to proactively anticipate information needs, facilitate key conversations, and coordinate efforts across programs and state and regional boundaries, Mitchell and Parham have made a significant impact on numerous imperiled species across the region.
Tom Schneider
Detroit Zoological Society
Tom Schneider is recognized as a 2017 Recovery Champion for his tireless dedication to organizing and leading a captive rearing program has been instrumental in bringing the Great Lakes piping plover back from the brink of extinction. Over the past 16 years, Schneider organized and mobilized zookeepers from across the country to work on the captive rearing effort for the species. Under his guidance, eggs were salvaged from abandoned nests in Michigan and incubated. Once hatched, chicks were raised and released back into the wild. When captive rearing efforts in the Great Lakes first began, fewer than 20 pairs of Great Lakes piping plovers existed in the wild, making this unique and isolated population close to extinction. The captive rearing program has been an instrumental part of an effort that has helped recover the wild population to 76 pairs in 2017, more than halfway to the recovery goal of 150 pairs.
Legacy Region 4
Mark Salvato
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Over the past 20 years, Mark Salvato has been instrumental in gathering and analyzing the data necessary to help achieve federal protections for various species and, in the case of the Miami blue and Schaus' swallowtail, lift them back from the brink of extinction. Salvato's work helped improve our understanding of species abundance, population dynamics, and viability. He was also instrumental in issuing an emergency order allowing the collection and captive rearing of endangered Schaus' swallowtail butterflies after a mere four individuals were found range-wide in 2012. Thanks in part to that extraordinary action, captive-bred adults and caterpillars have been released into the wild, giving new hope about the species' future. Further, his credibility in the Service and the scientific community have been instrumental in maintaining relationships, forming new partnerships, obtaining research funding, and influencing conservation and recovery not just for the listed butterflies, but also for an additional 15 listed plants, an at-risk butterfly, and an at-risk bee species.
Dr. Patrick E. O'Neil
Geological Survey of Alabama
In his distinguished career at the Geological Survey of Alabama, Dr. Patrick E. O'Neil has been an integral part of the development of conservation coalitions, listing and down/de-listing decisions, and served as a technical repository for at least 80 listed species, including the historic downlisting of the Tulotoma snail. O'Neil helped improve passage for the goldline darter, Cahaba shiner, and slackwater darter, and provided critical telemetry research that has become the foundation for working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to implement dam locks for migratory species like the Gulf sturgeon and American eel in the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers. O'Neil has successfully built strong conservation partnerships in the State of Alabama and has spent an entire career bringing various stakeholders together and educating them both on the importance of clean water, the role of healthy aquatic ecosystems, and how these can work sinuously with economic development.
Legacy Region 5
Glenn S. Smith
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Glenn S. Smith is honored as a 2017 Recovery Champion for his leadership in advancing more efficient and effective conservation through innovative approaches to cooperative consultation under section 7 of the Endangered Species Act. One exemplary example is his successful application the section 7(a)(1) to assist in the recovery of the endangered Atlantic salmon. Smith provided the framework for working with diverse partners to improve at road crossings for Atlantic salmon across its range. Over the years, Smith has also developed various guidance documents – including the Restoration Recovery Project Consultation Streamlining Guidance, Regional Project Priority Guidance, Regional (a)(1) Guidance – that have allowed Service staff increase productivity in accomplishing conservation while also helping federal action agencies and project proponents contribute more effectively to conservation and acquire more timely project approvals.
Dan Kircheis
NOAA Fisheries
Dan Kircheis is recognized as a 2017 Recovery Champion for his longstanding contributions to recovery of the Gulf of Maine distinct population segment (DPS) of Atlantic salmon and, most recently, his collaborative leadership in completing the recovery plan for this DPS. Kircheis has worked closely with stakeholders to identify priority recovery actions and secure support for implementing those actions. His role in numerous public meetings and tribal consultations has been a critical component of the recovery planning process, and the credibility he has built over the years with various salmon constituencies will continue to strengthen on-the-ground conservation efforts. Beyond his work on the recovery plan, Kircheis has worked for many years in partnership with the Service on Atlantic salmon recovery in his capacity as a fishery biologist with NOAA Fisheries. Serving on the recovery team for the original DPS, he provided critical input on the salmon's riverine habitat, particularly on water quality issues and connectivity needs.
Legacy Region 6
Wayne Kasworm
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
For more than 25 years, Wayne Kasworm has provided leadership in the effort to research, monitor, and conserve grizzly bears within the Cabinet/Yaak ecosystem. His contributions to grizzly bear recovery and toward building public and political support for the species has been instrumental to both the Cabinet/Yaak and Selkirk grizzly populations, and toward the future implementation of recovery efforts in the North Cascades. Through his leadership, professionalism, and commitment to the implementation of solid science, Kasworm has helped foster highly successful partnerships both within the grizzly bear recovery program and with international and local partners including British Columbia and several County Commissioners in northwest Montana.
Dr. Kevin Bestgen
Larval Fish Laboratory, Colorado State University
During his 30-year tenure at the Larval Fish Laboratory at Colorado State University, Dr. Kevin Bestgen has helped achieve significant conservation and recovery milestones for endangered fishes within the Upper Colorado River Basin. After reviewing his own larval razorback sucker monitoring data, Bestgen found that the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program and the Bureau of Reclamation could improve the timing of spring releases from Flaming Gorge Reservoir to connect floodplain nursery areas for larval razorback sucker. Following his recommendation, researchers in Utah successfully captured and released more than 2,000 wild produced young razorback sucker from a single Green River floodplain in 2016—a major milestone in species recovery. His findings have also directly influenced dam operations at Flaming Gorge reservoir, which has resulted in real progress in the recovery of both the razorback sucker and Colorado pikeminnow.
Legacy Region 7
Catherine Bradley
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Catherine Bradley is recognized as a 2017 Recovery Champion for her contributions to the recovery of the spectacled eider and Alaska-breeding Steller's eiders. Bradley has been instrumental in efforts to ensure our projects are robustly designed and statistically rigorous so that we may better understand abundance and trend information, current and future population scenarios, and effectively use analytical tools in our management decisions for these species. Further, her careful review of many long-term ongoing research projects and management actions, development of a variety of models that led to better understanding of population dynamics, and the numerous recommendations she provided to assist with understanding, managing, and recovering listed species has been critical to our conservation success.
John Tobin
Teck Alaska Incorporated, Red Dog Operation
For nearly a decade, John Tobin and his staff have provided critical support to the Service's Chukchi Sea polar bear research program. By helping coordinate shipping of capture gear to the mine, providing accommodations for our staff, and troubleshooting any issues that arise during the capture season, Tobin and his team have always been willing to assist in our research needs. Tobin's commitment to our research program has enabled us to collect invaluable information on bears in the Chukchi Sea, including polar bear ecology and how the animals are responding to sea ice loss. The research Tobin has supported allowed for the first estimate of the population's size in over two decades, which is critically needed to inform sustainable levels of subsistence harvest in the region. Additionally, the information gained on polar bear habitat use in the Chukchi Sea will be vital for ensuring that offshore activities can be conducted with minimal impacts to the population.
Legacy Region 8
Connie Rutherford
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
For more than 30 years, Connie Rutherford has worked to recover dozens of federally listed plant species in central and southern California. Her leadership, professionalism, and commitment to collaboration has helped foster highly-successful partnerships both within the Service, and with state and local partners including California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and Department of Defense. Her decades-long, active engagement with the plant research and conservation community has enabled her to communicate directly with species experts to quickly address questions that contribute to the conservation of taxa in the region. These relationships have been critical to help our partners recognize what steps are needed to recover listed plant species.
Dr. Barbara Kus
USGS Western Ecological Research Center
Dr. Barbara Kus is recognized as a 2017 Recovery Champion for her leadership and contributions toward the recovery of the least Bell's vireo. Kus' research on the vireo over the past 30 years has guided effective restoration of the vireo's nesting habitat and the appropriate management of the brown-headed cowbird, a brood parasite. Thanks in large part to her efforts, the vireo has responded vigorously to the improved nesting conditions in southern California, and its population has increased roughly tenfold since the species was listed in 1986. Kus' research on the vireo and its habitat has been highly valuable to the Service and partner organizations, facilitating informed management decisions. Noteworthy specific accomplishments include authoring the Service's draft recovery plan for the least Bell's vireo, regularly organizing and hosting range-wide recovery working group meetings, updating the most recent Birds of North America account for the Bell's vireo, and contributing toward a better understanding of population distribution and taxonomy of the Bell's vireo species complex.
