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Greg Scott, engineering equipment operator at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge in Decatur, Alabama, helped save the Service more than $1 million. For his efforts, he received a 2022 Regional Director’s Honor Award as Maintenance Professional of the Year.
Greg led the completion of several deferred maintenance projects at the refuge. The Public Lands Restoration Fund, established by the Great American Outdoors Act Great American Outdoors Act
This landmark conservation law, enacted in 2020, authorizes the use of up to $1.9 billion a year in energy development revenues for five years for needed maintenance to facilities and infrastructure in our wildlife refuges, national parks, forests, recreation areas and American Indian schools.
Learn more about Great American Outdoors Act , provides the Service with $95 million a year for these types of projects. Wheeler received some of this money to hire GAOA employees who Greg has trained, guided, and led since fall 2021. Together, they have accomplished a lot at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge.
For instance, they laid a parking lot for the visitor center and reconditioned the refuge’s Buckeye-Thorsen-Arm inner levee and the Dancy Bottoms Nature Trail near Flint Creek. In 2022, during dry weather conditions, Greg and his team rehabilitated more than 120 acres for moist-soil units. When a tornado hit the north side of the refuge in spring 2022, four miles of the refuge were impassable. For four weeks afterward, Greg supervised four employees who used chainsaws and heavy equipment to clear the area. Another project included removing the Beaverdam Boardwalk and preparing the site for its rebuilding. The refuge’s Flint Creek Fishing Pier also was revamped.
Greg has served as in his current position throughout his 14-year career with the Service. He says he enjoys his job because he performs a variety of tasks, such as repairing two pumping stations which drain waterfowl impoundments, creating a five-mile trail, and constructing an equipment storage shed.
“I do something different just about every day -- grading a road one day and mowing it the next, disking impoundments, dewatering impoundments so farmers can plant and raise corps for migrating waterfowl, blowing up beaver dams, and running and maintaining equipment. I also know that when I construct something on the refuge it may be there for generations to see,” says Greg.
He has also played leading roles in hurricane recovery efforts. Following Hurricane Ian in September last year, he organized and drove a hurricane response trailer from Wheeler to the Gulf Coast of Florida. In 2017, during Hurricane Irma, he led a team of Service responders to the Keys who repaired Service buildings by cleaning them and installing blue tarp roofs. They also cleaned the surrounding areas, hosed down equipment, and helped some employees with their homes.
“Working on hurricane details and being able to help people at their worst time is a great feeling,” Greg says.
Prior to working at Wheeler, Greg served in the Army for 26 years. He retired as a master sergeant at Camp Robinson in North Little Rock, Arkansas. In his spare time, he and his wife of 28 years, Pam, enjoy going camping and trail riding with their horses. They also compete in ranch sorting horseback events where they team up against another two-person team and race against the clock to sort cattle from one pen to another in the correct order.
But when working at Wheeler or around the Southeast on a special detail, Greg uses all his considerable skills to save the Service money while solving its maintenance needs.
