The Ohio Private Lands Office works cooperatively with landowners and conservation partners to restore privately owned fish and wildlife habitats throughout the state. Hegge will oversee projects that will restore essential wetlands and associated uplands and stream corridors for the benefit of migratory birds, endangered species, and native fish and wildlife species.
"Im looking forward to continuing the fish and wildlife habitat restoration work that is needed and essential in the State of Ohio, including developing new ventures with our traditional partners and building a cooperative program with a new partner, Miami University," Hegge said.
Hegge came to the Ohio Private Lands Office from the Services Reynoldsburg, Ohio, Ecological Services Field Office. While in the Reynoldsburg office, he worked with the Private Lands Program and the Services Realty Ascertainment Program. Before coming to the Reynoldsburg Office, Hegge held positions at Back Bay, Montezuma, and Mackay National Wildlife Refuges, as well as with the Division of Refuges in Washington, D.C. Before joining the Fish and Wildlife Service, Hegge worked for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Soil Conservation Service.
Hegge received bachelors and masters degrees from Ohio State University in agriculture and natural resources/wildlife management. He served as a rifleman in the U.S. Marine Corps in Vietnam and was awarded the Purple Heart.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting, and enhancing fish and wildlife and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95 million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses nearly 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 further information about programs and activities of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Great Lakes-Big Rivers Region, visit our website at http://midwest.fws.gov
