Secretary of Interior Reappoints Pheasants Forever’s Nomsen to Wetlands Post
OutdoorHub 08.02.11
Washington, D.C. – August 2, 2011 – Dave Nomsen, Pheasants Forever’s Vice President of Government Affairs, has been reappointed to the North American Wetlands Conservation Council. Ken Salazar, Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, made the appointment. Nomsen has served as a member on the Council since 1999.
The Council was established by the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) to review and recommend project proposals to the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission, which has the ultimate authority to approve funding for projects under NAWCA. Created on December 13, 1989, NAWCA is an international agreement that provides a strategy and funding for the long-term protection of wetlands and associated upland habitats needed by waterfowl and other migratory birds in North America.
The Council includes the Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Executive Secretary of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, four state representatives (one from each flyway), and representatives from non-governmental organizations appointed by the Secretary of the Interior. “I am honored to continue serving with this distinguished group of conservation leaders,” reported Nomsen. “As evidenced by the recent estimate of more than 45 million breeding ducks surveyed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and strong pheasant numbers in the Dakotas, NAWCA has truly been a success story in our efforts to protect and restore this continent’s wetland habitats. I look forward to contributing to that wetland conservation legacy.”
From September 1990 through March 2011, some 4,500 partners in 2,067 projects have received more than $1.1 billion in grants. They have contributed another $2.32 billion in matching funds to affect 26.5 million acres of habitat and $1.21 billion in non-matching funds to affect 234,820 acres of wetlands and associated upland habitat across the continent.
Nomsen is a Clear Lake, Iowa native, where his father was the chief pheasant biologist for the Iowa Conservation
Commission (now the Iowa Department of Natural Resources). Following his father’s conservation lead, Nomsen received a master’s in wildlife management from South Dakota State University. He has been with Pheasants Forever since 1992, where he began as Pheasants Forever’s wildlife biologist for Minnesota. Today, Nomsen is the organization’s voice on Capitol Hill and one of the most respected and knowledgeable advocates in support of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). With extensive experience in wetlands conservation, Nomsen points out his work with South Dakota’s Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit as the source of his most important knowledge about wetlands. While with the Unit, Nomsen conducted national wetlands inventories and worked on projects related to the functions and values of prairie wetlands. He makes his home in Garfield, Minnesota, with his wife, Melanie, and his Labrador retriever, Nellie, and Springer Spaniel, Little TR.
Pheasants Forever, including its quail conservation division, Quail Forever, is the nation’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to upland habitat conservation. Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever have more than 130,000 members and 700 local chapters across the United States and Canada. Chapters are empowered to determine how 100 percent of their locally raised conservation funds are spent – the only national conservation organization that operates through this truly grassroots structure.
Editor’s Note: Pictured, from left, John Beall, Pheasants Forever’s staff representative to the NAWCA Council, and Dave Nomsen, Pheasants Forever’s Vice President of Government Affairs.
