Two U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service field managers from the Midwest Region were honored March 1 in Washington, D.C., during a national gathering of Service employees.
Craig Czarnecki, head of the East Lansing, Mich., Ecological Services Field Office and Doug Aloisi, manager of the Genoa National Fish Hatchery in Genoa, Wis., were each presented with a “Project Leader of the Year” award by Service Director H. Dale Hall at a reception at the Library of Congress.
Czarnecki and Aloisi were honored for their leadership roles in the Service’s efforts to conserve imperiled species and their habitats.
As project leader of the East Lansing Ecological Services Field Office, Czarnecki has supported efforts by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to develop a state-wide Habitat Conservation Plan for the endangered Karner blue butterfly. He has also spearheaded development of a landscape-level prescription for habitat restoration for copperbelly water snake recovery, and engaged Great Lakes water resource development agencies in constructive reviews of proposed projects.
Through Czarnecki’s initiative, Service project leaders in Michigan now hold recurring meetings to enhance collaboration among agency program areas. Czarnecki is also responsible organizing joint meetings between the State of Michigan and Service project leaders to facilitate coordination and implementation of the Michigan State Wildlife Conservation Grant.
Czarnecki helped foster a precedent-setting negotiation with the Federal Communications Commission and Michigan State Police that resulted in ongoing consultation with the Service about the operation and maintenance of police communication towers and associated impacts on the Kirtland’s warbler, an endangered bird.
He was also instrumental in the 2006 reauthorization of the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act, which has been successful in building partnerships for cooperative conservation, enhancement, and restoration of Great Lakes fish, wildlife and habitat. He helped lead efforts of the Service’s National Ecosystem Assessment Team to produce the conservation business model called Strategic Habitat Conservation, which will assist in developing and implementing landscape approaches to habitat conservation.
Doug Aloisi was honored for his contribution to recovery and restoration efforts for imperiled native mussels and lake sturgeon in the Upper Midwest.
When Aloisi arrived at the Genoa National Fish Hatchery in 2001, the endangered Higginseye pearly mussel recovery program was in its infancy and the hatchery was participating in two lake sturgeon restoration programs. Under his leadership, Genoa NFH has expanded beyond traditional hatchery programs to make significant contributions to restoration and recovery efforts for non-traditional aquatic species.
Under Aloisi’s leadership, the Higginseye recovery program has put more than 5.5 million animals, ranging from juvenile to adult, into six rivers in the Upper Mississippi River watershed. More than 300,000 juvenile endangered winged mapleleaf mussels have been released into the St. Croix River, which forms the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin, and propagation programs have begun for four other mussel species of concern.
Culture techniques developed by the Genoa hatchery are being used by others across the country for mussel restoration and recovery efforts. Partnerships for mussel recovery and restoration include three federal agencies, four states, several universities and other conservation organizations.
Lake sturgeon propagation at Genoa NFH -- which could preclude putting this rare species on the federal endangered species list--has quadrupled to more than 34,000 fish annually since Aloisi became hatchery manager. This program has gone from two restoration sites on the Menominee and White Earth Indian reservations in Wisconsin and Minnesota respectively, to five, including the Red River drainage in Minnesota, the Mississippi River in Missouri, and the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. Partnerships supporting these programs include three state governments, three Native American tribes, a federal agency and several private conservation organizations.
Aloisi was also recognized for his strong outreach efforts on behalf of the programs he oversees at Genoa NFH -- efforts that reach a variety of audiences.
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 96-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.
