The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Alaska Region is pleased to announce that Glenn Elison, Alaska State Director of the Conservation Fund, has been selected to receive The North American Waterfowl Management Plan’s National Blue-winged Teal Award. This award, created in 2009, recognizes partners whose activities at the national, regional, or local level result in substantial benefits to waterfowl, other wetland-associated migratory bird populations or wetlands habitats, as a one-time, periodic or ongoing effort.
Glenn has devoted much of his career to the protection of Alaska’s fish and wildlife resources. He has served as the Refuge Manager for the Alaska Peninsula NWR and the Arctic NWR, and as an Assistant Regional Director with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before assuming his current role with the Conservation Fund, a national " non-profit organization that works to protect fish and wildlife habitat and community open space. Glenn’s work in Alaska - managing lands, protecting habitat, leveraging funds and promoting partnerships - is of long-term significance to Alaska’s waterfowl. His accomplishments have included the protection of coastal and freshwater ecosystems under diverse ownership and management. Glenn’s efforts have also set an example for Alaskans working cooperatively to achieve conservation results, one of the hallmarks of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan.
In Alaska, Glenn has been involved in the protection of more than 300,000 acres of wildlife habitat. His work here has also resulted in landscape level conservation of habitat along major river drainages in Southwest Alaska. Glenn was instrumental in the development of the Southwest Alaska Conservation Coalition, an umbrella organization"color: red of groups working to identify, prioritize and protect habitats for the protection of fish, wildlife and cultural and recreational values.
In yet another area of Alaska, Glenn served as the chief negotiator and administrator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for several large habitat conservation agreements completed pursuant to the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill settlement. Under Glenn’s direction over 200,000 acres of wildlife habitat was protected on Kodiak Island.
These accomplishments, and others not described here, form a litany and legacy of Glenn’s conservation work recognized by the NAWCA awards committee. Glenn’s continued commitment to protecting waterfowl and their habitats make him a worthy of recipient of the 2010 National Blue-winged Teal Award.
