Andy Loranger has been selected as the new Refuge Manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, headquartered in Soldotna, Alaska. Mr. Loranger assumed his duties at Kenai Refuge on March 14th.
“Andy’s career with the Service spans more than 30 years,” said the agency’s Alaska Regional Director Geoffrey L. Haskett, “and included stints at Nowitna and Kenai refuges in the 80’s and 90’s. We’re fortunate to have someone with his experience and dedication taking the reins at Alaska’s busiest refuge, and I’m happy to be able to welcome him back to our state.”
Andy Loranger most recently served in the National Wildlife Refuge System’s Washington, D.C. Headquarters as Chief of the Division of Natural Resources and Conservation Planning, a position to which he was appointed in 2008. He began his Service career as a seasonal biological technician on the Benson Wetland Management District in west-central Minnesota, and has worked for the agency in Texas and Arizona as well as Alaska. He has an M.S. in Natural Resources Conservation from the University of Connecticut.
“I left Alaska in 1992,” he said, “and I’ve been hoping to come back ever since. Kenai National Wildlife Refuge is a wonderful place and valued by the hundreds of thousands of people who visit it every year to fish, hunt, hike, canoe, and otherwise take advantage of its abundant beauty and natural resources. I look forward to learning how the area has changed since I was last here, and to doing my part to make sure the Refuge maintains its place as one of the special jewels of the National Wildlife Refuge System.”
Often referred to as “Alaska in Miniature” because it includes many of the ecosystems found across the state, Kenai National Wildlife Refuge was established as the Kenai National Moose Range in 1941. Nearly two million acres in size, the Refuge has recently benefited from funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, much of which will go to improve public use cabins and other visitor facilities.
Media representatives can obtain a photo of Andy Loranger by contacting Bruce Woods at the phone number above.
