As project leader of the 5,794-acre Ottawa NWR, Frisk will supervise ten employees and oversee the operations and biological programs of the refuge complex, which includes Ottawa, Cedar Point and West Sister refuges. Frisk will also administer the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Partners for Fish and Wildlife program for Ohio. The refuge complex and surrounding areas provide critical habitat for migratory birds. Up to 70 percent of the Mississippi Flyway population of black ducks can be found in the Lake Erie marshes during the fall migration. In addition, West Sister has the largest heron/egret rookery in the Great Lakes.
"Im proud to be among the ranks of refuge managers within the Great Lakes-Big Rivers Region and Im excited about the opportunity to work with the people and communities of Northern Ohio," said Frisk. "My family and I are really looking forward to getting back to the Great Lakes area." Frisk will be moving to Ohio with his wife Sheila. Frisks hobbies include hunting, fishing, hiking, bird watching and canoeing.
Frisk has spent the past twelve years working in wildlife-related positions in the southeast United States, most recently as refuge manager of Pee Dee National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina.
Frisk grew up in White Pine, Mich., a small copper-mining town in the states Upper Peninsula. He earned a bachelors degree in Zoology from Northern Michigan University in 1981 and a masters degree in Wildlife Biology from Murray State University, Murray, Ky., in 1992.
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 Services manages the 93-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System of more than 530 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 66 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 further information about the programs and activities of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Great Lakes-Big Rivers Region, please visit our Home Page at: http://midwest.fws.gov
