fws welcomes new yreka field office supervisor 111210

Our Klamath Basin Water Crisis
Upholding rural Americans' rights to grow food,
own property, and caretake our wildlife and natural resources.

http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/news/x684366240/U-S-Fish-and-Wildlife-welcomes-new-Yreka-field-office-supervisor

U.S. Fish and Wildlife welcomes new Yreka field office supervisor

Siskiyou Daily News November 12, 2010

Yreka, Calif. — Erin Williams has been named the new field supervisor of the Yreka Fish and Wildlife Office, a USFWS press release announced this week.

She began her new duties on Oct. 18 and comes to Yreka from the Service’s Fisheries Program in Lakewood, Colo.

A marine and wildlife biologist, Williams has been with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since 2002. She began her career in the federal service at the Stockton Fish and Wildlife Office (California) as non-native invasive species program coordinator working on invasive species issues. Later, she served as injurious wildlife evaluations coordinator in the Washington Headquarters Office working on Asian carp, snakehead and other ecologically harmful non-native species.

“We’re pleased to have Erin leading the Yreka field office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,” Ren Lohoefener, regional director of the service’s Pacific Southwest Region stated in the release. “Her knowledge, experience and energy will serve the local community well on wildlife and habitat conservation issues.”

As supervisor of the Yreka Fish and Wildlife Office (Yreka FWO), Williams directs a staff of 18 people and oversees activities in support of a number of programs aimed at the restoration and recovery of rare species and the habitats on which they depend. She will also oversee several voluntary landowner conservation programs aimed at benefiting the larger Klamath River watershed and ecosystem.

“It is an honor and a privilege to be in such a beautiful part of the country, and I look forward to working with our longtime partners, local landowners and other dedicated stewards of our natural resources,” Williams said in the release.

Prior to joining the service, Williams was in Hawaii working at a bottlenosed dolphin cognition facility and worked on invasive species issues in Davis, Calif. She is from central Minnesota and received a B.S. in biology and B.A. in psychology from the University of Minnesota-Duluth. She has a master’s of science from Oregon State University through the marine resource management program.

An outdoor enthusiast, Williams said she is looking forward to exploring the outdoors and the many recreational opportunities that the area offers.