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.
Legacy Region 1
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Madeleine Vander Heyden
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
For more than a decade, Madeleine Vander Heyden's unflagging efforts have been instrumental in maintaining and improving conditions for the federally endangered western lily in coastal Oregon. In addition to building her own knowledge of the lily and its habitat, Vander Heyden has provided technical and regulatory-compliance support and established a wide network of partners. She has bolstered wild populations by spearheading efforts to design and conduct innovative habitat restoration techniques while also leveraging funding from several sources to purchase property harboring a newly discovered lily population. Vander Heyden led development of management plans for this property and others, coordinated annual lily surveys, and assessed restoration outcomes. As a result of these efforts, at least 25 acres of lily habitat have been restored, existing populations have grown or been reconnected, and two new populations have been discovered.
Partner(s)
Vikki Jackson
Dr. Stephen Nyman
Whatcom County Amphibian Monitoring Project
Vikki Jackson and Dr. Stephen Nyman of the Whatcom County Amphibian Monitoring Project are recognized as recovery champions for their leadership in recovery of the Oregon spotted frog. Their tireless efforts to bring their community together around this federally threatened frog has vastly improved our understanding of the species, stemmed the decline of several populations, and physically reclaimed lost habitat. The monitoring project has been instrumental in a number of recovery efforts for the frog, including the development of a volunteer community dedicated to increasing our understanding of the species and other amphibians through citizen science and community outreach. Their dedication to the species has resulted in an informed and engaged community, new information about the species, several newly discovered populations, and novel habitat recovery methods.
Legacy Region 2
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Chris Best
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Over his 30-year career with the Service, Chris Best provided valuable leadership toward plant recovery throughout Texas, developed innovative science for plants, improved internal processes to benefit numerous plant species, produced large volumes of planning documents and draft rules, and served as a trusted, valued partner with internal and external partners and countless private landowners. Highlights of Best's dedication toward Texas plant recovery include the Tobusch fishhook cactus and the Guadalupe fescue. His conservation efforts resulted in the downlisting of the Tobusch fishhook cactus in 2018. Using new species survey information, Best provided pivotal insights into the species' status by developing models that were central to meeting our conservation goals. In the case of Guadalupe fescue, Best worked diligently with partners to ensure the species' continued conservation in Texas while also managing fescue habitat and developing survey protocols to better inform the species' status. This new survey protocol is an exceptional tool that will be applicable to many additional plant species' survey methods.
Partner(s)
Angela Dahlby
Bonnie Woods
U.S. Forest Service
Angela Dahlby and Bonnie Woods have been exemplary partners in implementing recovery actions for Mount Graham red squirrel following the devastating Frye Fire, which affected approximately 95 percent of the species' habitat in 2017, playing a key role in preventing the squirrel's extinction after the population dropped to just 35 individuals. During the winter immediately following the Frye Fire, Dahlby and Woods secured $100,000 to implement a supplemental feeding program to prevent the subspecies' extinction. Additionally, they dedicated a significant amount of time during the summer and fall of 2018 to survey for red squirrels. Working closely with forest entomologists, the pair acquired and deployed insect pheromones to prevent insect outbreaks in surviving trees, thus averting a potentially catastrophic decline in the squirrel's remaining food resources. Following these efforts, Dahlby and Woods went on to secure further funding to continue these activities each year through 2020. Thanks largely to their perseverance, the squirrel's population now stands at 109.
Legacy Region 3
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Jack Dingledine
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (retired)
The dedication, innovation, and leadership Jack Dingledine demonstrated throughout his 20-year career with the Service were pivotal in halting the decline of the piping plover and lifting the species from the brink of extinction. As the Great Lakes Piping Plover Coordinator, Dingledine helped systematically address threats to the species throughout the Great Lakes watershed through habitat management, nest protection, predator management, and partner engagement. Most notably, Dingledine worked to develop and expand a captive rearing program to salvage abandoned and imperiled piping plover eggs. Since its initiation, the program has raised and released more than 300 captive piping plover chicks into the wild, including a record-breaking 39 chicks last year. While the Great Lakes piping plover is still critically endangered, his efforts with the captive rearing program have helped increase the population to a record high of 76 pairs in 2017, over halfway to the recovery goal of 150 pairs.
Partner(s)
Tom Aley
Cathy Aley
Dr. Dave Ashley
Tumbling Creek Cave Foundation
Tom Aley, Cathy Aley, and Dr. Dave Ashley are recognized as recovery champions for their contributions to the recovery of the Tumbling Creek cavesnail. The team has worked tirelessly to advance the conservation of the federally endangered snail through community engagement that instilled a sense of ownership of the species. The team's actions have also resulted in long-term recovery support for the species through the establishment of the Tumbling Creek Cave Foundation, which has protected and restored more than 3,500 acres of land within the recharge area of the cave since 2004. In addition, the Foundation continues to advance restoration activities, conduct population surveys and monitoring, and work to exclude and remove that threaten the snail's survival. These efforts have resulted in a positive population trend since the Service emergency listed the snail in 2002; in 2017, the population was estimated to be 900 individuals, the highest estimate since listing.
Legacy Region 4
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Susan Silander
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Susan Silander is recognized as a recovery champion for her leadership in the recovery of species in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Her efforts to develop partnerships with local researchers, universities, and conservation organizations resulted in the protection of dozens of plant species over thousands of acres of tropical limestone forest, and the propagation protocols she developed are now widely implemented by partners. This foundational work was pivotal in the five-year status reviews for several species, including the palo de rosa and Eugenia woodburyana, both of which have been downlisted from endangered to threatened. In her current role as the Caribbean Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex Project Leader, she has worked tirelessly to develop conservation and recovery strategies for all 37 federally protected plant and animal species that occur on the refuge.
Partner(s)
Interagency Cooperation Recovery Group
Stephen Ricks
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Paul Hartfield
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Casey Lott
Conservation Science Institute
Dr. Richard Fischer
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Joe Wilson
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Cary Norquist
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (retired)
Members of the Interagency Cooperation Recovery Group have demonstrated tremendous leadership in promoting endangered species and ecosystem conservation under section 7(a)(1) of the Endangered Species Act. The group was initially formed in 2013 to develop an interagency approach to conserve the Interior least tern using U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) flood control and navigation programs. Over the past eight years, group members worked proactively to achieve solutions to key stakeholder concerns and helped pave the path to delisting the tern. The group's successful management of more than 80 percent of the tern's primary habitat, development of a range-wide metapopulation model to address stakeholder concerns, and establishment of monitoring standards was central to the delisting of this species. Their efforts have also improved the status of other at-risk species in the Mississippi and Missouri river systems, including the endangered piping plover, pallid sturgeon, and fat pocketbook mussel, with positive ecosystem-level affects for many additional fish, freshwater mussels, neotropical migrant birds, and shorebirds.
Legacy Region 5
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Dr. Sadie Stevens
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Dr. Sadie Stevens is recognized as a 2020 recovery champion for her work to improve coordination between U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offices and strengthen relationships with state agencies receiving funding under the Cooperative Endangered Species Grant Programs. Since 2015, Stevens' leadership, professionalism, collaborative approach, and technical expertise have ensured delivery of more than $5.3 million in grants to 16 state agencies, which has resulted in implementation of significant recovery actions for 85 listed species in the region, including actions that led to the Service's recommendation that northeastern bulrush and American hart's-tongue fern be delisted and Furbish's lousewort be downlisted. Stevens has ensured that competitive granting requirements are followed and that state legal authorities for listed species management are up-to-date and accurate, and she has provided greater transparency and clarity for state agencies applying for grant funds.
Partner(s)
Louis Perrotti
Roger Williams Park Zoo
Since 1994, Louis Perrotti has worked closely with the Service, state agencies, and local partners to protect the American burying beetle on Block Island and to ensure its persistence into the future by establishing a reintroduction program on Nantucket Island. His dedication to this project since its inception has resulted in years of high-quality monitoring and life history data that will inform the successful management of this population and aid in future reintroduction efforts. Perrotti has also collaborated with researchers to identify the carrion sources the beetles use to reproduce on the two islands, providing crucial information for the management of the species throughout its range. Additionally, by making the story of the American burying beetle resonate, Perrotti inspired a group of elementary school students to spearhead the designation of the American burying beetle as the official state insect of Rhode Island in 2015.
Legacy Region 6
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Jeffrey Powell
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
In his capacity as the Project Leader at Gavins Point National Fish Hatchery, Jeffrey Powell has demonstrated leadership, professionalism, and extensive knowledge of fish culture by establishing a captive and spawning population of Kendall Warm Springs dace, thus moving this federally endangered species toward recovery. Powell's exceptional efforts have addressed a key component of the Kendall Warm Springs dace Recovery Plan, the success of which depends on a captive-spawning dace population. Powell achieved this challenging goal by successfully incorporating wild fish into a captive environment through appropriate genetics management, nutrition, water temperature and quality, disease and stress management, and other critical factors. By developing novel spawning and rearing techniques, his work has also guided the development of a second refuge population.
Partner(s)
Greenback Cutthroat Trout Recovery Team
Kyle Battige
Harry Crockett
Bryan Johnson
Josh Nehrin
Cory Noble
Kevin Rogers
Jeff Spohn
Tyler Swarr
Paul Winkle
Boyd Wright
Colorado Parks and Wildlife
The Greenback Cutthroat Trout Recovery Team has been instrumental in various efforts to conserve the species. After a genetic study in 2012 determined only a single population of the federally endangered trout remained in existence, team members worked to establish a hatchery brood stock. Despite extremely low hatching and survival rates, the team was able to successfully rear enough trout for reintroductions into two streams and one lake in the South Platte River drainage between 2014 and 2019. This reintroduction effort involved backpacking fish into mountain streams for three consecutive years, for which the team coordinated more than 400 volunteers with Colorado Trout Unlimited. Currently, team members are making preparations for additional reintroduction projects and researching strategies to increase genetic diversity to improve survival of the fish.
Legacy Region 7
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Kaithryn Ott
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Kaithryn Ott is recognized as a recovery champion for her leadership and assistance in the conservation, management, and recovery of Steller's and spectacled eiders. In 2011, Ott was instrumental in researching and designing a study to better understand the correlation between lemming cycles and eider populations. She successfully tackled the difficult task of catching lemmings and provided years of valuable data for the Eider Research Program. As a result, we now have a clearer understanding of how annual lemming population fluctuations impact predator food availability to influence nest success for breeding eiders. Since 2012 Ott has also contributed significantly to minimizing and mitigating impacts to eiders through her section 7 consultation work. For example, applicants now place bird diverters on all project power lines to minimize collision risk to eiders. Additionally, her unique coordination approach with project applicants, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and landowners results in successful habitat protections and preservation approaches, often unique in Alaska.
Partner(s)
Dr. Maria Spriggs
Busch Gardens
Dr. Maria Spriggs is recognized as a 2020 recovery champion for her contributions to spectacled eider recovery, which span more than a decade. Over the years, Spriggs has not only worked to improve our understanding of the seasonal movements and distribution of the elusive spectacled eider, but also refine field methods necessary to obtain this valuable information. Spriggs' work with eiders began with satellite transmitter deployments on the Arctic Coastal Plain. That work led to a peer-reviewed publication identifying indicators of poor outcomes following surgery to implant transmitters. More recently, Spriggs has continued to improve capture and handling methods for spectacled eiders at Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge, by testing the effectiveness of sedation for reducing stress and physical exertion. These achievements were hard earned in remote field camp settings, where camping tents were stand-ins for surgical suites and equipment was frequently backpacked up muddy riverbanks and across soggy tundra.
Legacy Region 8
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Amargosa Vole Recovery Implementation Team
Scott Hoffmann
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Brian Croft
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Dr. Deana Clifford
California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Tanya Henderson
Amargosa Conservancy
Dr. Janet Foley
University of California
Dr. Robert Klinger
U.S. Geological Survey
Christiana Manville
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Chris Otahal
Bureau of Land Management
Steve Parmenter
California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Amy Fesnock
Bureau of Land Management
Susan Sorrells
Shoshone Village
The Amargosa Vole Recovery Implementation Team is an excellent example of how federal and state agencies, academic institutions, non-governmental organizations, and private partners can work together to conserve endangered species. Since 2013, this diverse team of partners has worked to address population declines and improve the recovery outlook for the endangered mammal. Team members have provided a better understanding of species population viability, genetic diversity, dietary requirements, habitat needs, and restoration techniques. These insights have resulted in stabilization of habitat and an increased chance of survival of the species. Further, the team's work on captive rearing requirements, translocation, and reintroduction methods are important additions to the species recovery toolbox, and were instrumental in the re-establishment of the species in a portion of its historical range from which it was extirpated more than 100 years ago.
Partner(s)
Jim DeForge
Bighorn Institute
Jim DeForge is recognized as a recovery champion for his leadership in conserving the endangered Peninsular bighorn sheep. In 1982, DeForge founded the Bighorn Institute with a focus on conserving bighorn populations following a devastating disease outbreak. The Institute began a captive breeding and population augmentation program in 1984 and has since released 127 captive-reared bighorn to the wild. In the early 2000s, DeForge's perseverance in community outreach, generated the cooperation needed to fund and install a five-mile-long bighorn protection fence in the City of Rancho Mirage to exclude bighorn from highways and other urban-related hazards, and improve bighorn survival and recruitment in the Northern Santa Rosa Mountains Recovery Region. As a result of his efforts, the status of Peninsular bighorn sheep continues to improve and we are approaching the downlisting criteria of at least 25 ewes maintained within each recovery region.
