The Conservation Fund Mourns the Loss of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Sam Hamilton

February 23, 2010

Contact:

Vanessa Vaughan, The Conservation Fund
(703) 908-5809 / vvaughan@conservationfund.org

The following is a statement from Larry Selzer, president and CEO of The Conservation Fund:

Over the weekend, our nation lost a great leader and conservationist: Sam Hamilton, the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Sam was a man of quiet conviction, empathy and a deep and abiding passion for conserving our nation’s fish and wildlife.

For many years, we had the great honor and privilege of working with Sam closely in his position as regional director in Atlanta. There, he played a lead role in placing our nation’s wildlife refuges at the forefront of the efforts to address global climate change and elevated the Service’s and the National Refuge System’s role in providing benefits for wildlife, water, people and communities.

As director, he led the Service to build on its position as the world’s foremost fish and wildlife agency to address the needs of wildlife in a changing environment and move forward with coordinated science-based landscape conservation across the Service and its sister agencies.

Sam was devoted to the people of his agency and its many partners. We will miss him greatly and will join with the Service and its partners to carry on with Sam’s vision and sense of purpose that inspired the nation’s conservation community. In this way, his vision and legacy will continue on for generations to come.

About The Conservation Fund

The Conservation Fund is dedicated to advancing America’s land and water legacy. With our partners, we conserve land, train leaders and invest in conservation at home. Since 1985, we have helped protect more than 6 million acres, sustaining wild havens, working lands and vibrant communities. We're a top-ranked conservation organization, effective and efficient.