Tony Sullins has been named field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Ecological Services Field Office in Bloomington, Minn. Sullins, with 14 years of experience with the Department of the Interior, will join the 11-member Twin Cities Field Office staff Sept.18, 2006.
The Twin Cities office handles a wide variety of fish and wildlife issues for the Service in Minnesota, from the Upper Mississippi River to the prairies to Lake Superior. Sullins will oversee efforts to conserve endangered species, habitat conservation programs, reviews of federal projects for fish and wildlife impacts, contaminant issues, and partnerships with private landowners.
In carrying out this broad array of functions, Sullins acknowledges the significant responsibility of this small field office near the Minnesota River. “The everyday work of this team of biologists will benefit generations of Minnesotans,” he said. Sullins is determined that the Twin Cities Field Office remain “the little office that can and does find solutions” to difficult resource challenges.
Sullins comes to the Twin Cities Field Office from the Office of the Field Solicitor in Fort Snelling, Minn. While in the Field Solicitor’s Office, he provided legal services to various bureaus within the Department of the Interior, including the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Sullins joined the Office of the Solicitor through its “Honors Program” and spent a year in that program rotating through the various divisions in the Office of the Solicitor in Washington, DC. He then spent eight years in the Boise, Idaho, Field Solicitor’s Office, where major clients were the Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Land Management, and the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Much of Sullins’ work in the Office of the Solicitor has been on specific matters relating to fish and wildlife, resource and habitat conditions, and species management. He has worked extensively with endangered species issues in the Pacific Northwest and in the Midwest, including extensive work on the Missouri River. In addition, Sullins is the author of a comprehensive book on the Endangered Species Act.
Sullins studied biology at Southeast Missouri State University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1988. He received his JD from the University of Wyoming 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 Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 545 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resources offices and 81 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 and Native American tribal governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Assistance program, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
