Roger Gordon, a veteran fishery biologist, is the new manager of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Jordan River National Fish Hatchery in Elmira, Mich.
Gordon, who replaces former manager Rick Westerhof, reported for duty at Jordan River on Sept. 4.
“Roger Gordon brings 16 years of fisheries experience in the Midwest Region to this new position, and I am pleased to welcome him to the ranks of our outstanding hatchery managers,” said Gerry Jackson, the Service’s Midwest Assistant Regional Director for Fisheries.
“I am looking forward to getting involved with the people of northern Michigan to continue the ongoing efforts to restore our fisheries and aquatic resources,” Gordon said. “Growing up in northeastern Michigan on the shores of Lake Huron, I became infatuated with fish, and I am excited to be back in my home state to help manage some of our most valuable natural resources.”
Established in 1962, Jordan River National Fish Hatchery is dedicated to stocking lake trout in the Great Lakes as part of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s mission to restore native fish species. The hatchery annually raises some 2 million yearling lake trout, which are stocked at off-shore sites in lakes Michigan and Huron using the Fish and Wildlife Service’s new stocking vessel, the M/V Spencer F. Baird.
Gordon previously served as assistant hatchery manager at Genoa National Fish Hatchery in southwestern Wisconsin, where he focused on lake sturgeon restoration in northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and Missouri, and endangered mussel recovery projects in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Iowa. He was a recipient of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2007 National Recovery Champion award for his work on restoring endangered Higgins-eye pearlymussels in the upper Midwest.
Prior to working at Genoa, Gordon was a fishery biologist at Iron River National Fish Hatchery in northern Wisconsin. He began his Fish and Wildlife Service career in 1991 at Sullivan Creek National Fish Hatchery in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Gordon received a Bachelor of Science degree in Fisheries and Wildlife Management from Lake Superior State University. His hobbies include fishing, hunting, gardening and bird watching, and spending time with his wife and two teenage children.
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 544 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.