Conservation News - Alabama Department of Conservation and ...

Mark Sasser Named Wildlife
Conservationist of the Year
Mark Sasser of Montgomery was
recently awarded the Wildlife Conservationist
of the Year Award at the 2010
Governor’s Conservation Achievement
Awards banquet.
Sasser is an exceptional wildlife biologist
who serves as the Nongame Wildlife
Program Coordinator for the Wildlife and
Freshwater Fisheries Division of the Alabama
Department of Conservation and
Natural Resources. Throughout his career,
Sasser has been an effective leader and influence
on a variety of fronts in the natural
resources community.
Sasser works diligently behind the
scenes for the cause of non-game wildlife
and their habitats. He has promoted recovery
of several imperiled species in Alabama
through judicious management of available
funding. Most notable are his efforts with
two species in the longleaf pine ecosystem,
the red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW)
and the Eastern indigo snake. Sasser was
key in the implementation and oversight
of Alabama’s RCW Safe Harbor program
which has turned out to be a
win-win for landowners and
the birds. A protected and
threatened species, the Eastern
indigo disappeared along
with the longleaf forests over
time. Sasser was a key player
in convening a coalition of
partners including Auburn
University, the U.S. Forest Service,
Project Orianne and the
Georgia Department of Natural Resources
in a multi-year project that began this year
with the release of 17 young eastern indigos
in the Conecuh National Forest. Under
Sasser’s oversight, the success of both projects
has surpassed all expectations.
Over the last several years, despite limited
funding and a small staff, Sasser has
been the impetus behind the adoption of
regulations and laws designed to protect
some of our most vulnerable non-game
wildlife species, including Alabama’s freshwater
turtles and the gopher tortoise.
He is passionate about wildlife and is
frequently on the front lines preventing
the import/export of wildlife species in
Alabama. These efforts have lessened the
impacts of the pet trade on many of our
unique reptiles and prevented widespread
destruction of our native species through
import of exotic/invasive species.
Sasser has also been an active and
productive member of AWF’s Alabama
Wildlife magazine editorial board, volunteering
his time to find qualified authors on
a variety of topics, and sometimes writing
and delivering quality feature articles to the
magazine’s readers.
Jon Sims Awarded Conservation Enforcement Officer of the Year
Sergeant Jon Sims of Salem was recently
awarded the Conservation Enforcement
Officer of the Year Award at the 2010
Governor’s Conservation Achievement
Awards banquet.
In his eight years as a conservation enforcement
officer, Sims has distinguished
himself as one of the most resourceful,
intelligent and hardworking investigators in
the state. Leading the Special Investigations
Unit of the Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries
Division, Sims and his team have solved
baffling cases and tracked down numerous
hard to catch violators.
When outlaws in south Alabama were
suspected of killing black bears, Sims and
his team got the call. The team walked the
6,000-acre area where discarded bears were
believed to be and discovered the bear
carcasses. Within a few days, Sims and his
team had confessions from two individuals.
A few months later, in a separate incident
involving a dead bear dumped along a road
side, Sims used his detective skills to track
down the person who killed the bear and
dumped the carcass – two months after the
bear had been found on the roadside. His
determination and tireless work led to the
suspect and eventually a full confession.
Not surprisingly, Sims is an avid outdoorsman
even when he’s not at work. He
hunts, particularly turkey, and manages
several hundred acres of land in Lee County.
He also maintains a dove field and stages
a free dove hunt each year for conservation
officers and their children.
www.outdooralabama.com 31