ANWR chief: Fish and Wildlife names Gould Alaska director

Petroleum News Alaska Staff

The Interior Department's agency that oversees the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge said Feb. 17 it is making changes in its top leadership, including the director of the agency's Alaska region.

Rowan Gould, currently deputy regional director in Portland, Ore., has been named regional director for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Alaska region.

David Allen, the agency's Alaska regional director for the last eight years, has been named regional director of the agency's Pacific region based in Portland. The Pacific region includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Nevada, Hawaii, and the U.S. Trust Territories in the Pacific Ocean.

The assignments are subject to review and approval by Interior's Executive Resources Board.

Gould holds a Ph.D. in fish pathology and fish biology from Oregon State University and has been assigned to Alaska before, as assistant regional director for Refuges and Wildlife from 1991-95 and as assistant regional director for Ecological Services and Fisheries from 1987-91. In 1989 and 1990 he coordinated Fish and Wildlife's activities in response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and served as the Interior Department's representative to the inter-governmental oil spill damage assessment management team. Immediately before coming to Portland, Gould was deputy assistant director of Fisheries in Washington, D.C.

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 and manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 540 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas.