As a wildlife biologist with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, Randall C. Wilson helped bolster populations of game animals across the state. But it is in a fledgling program dedicated to nongame wildlife that he found his true calling.

The dedication that he put into growing the Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Program from a staff of four in 1988 to more than 25 biologists now and the conservation achievements that resulted have earned Wilson the commission's prestigious honor, the Thomas L. Quay Wildlife Diversity Award.

Wilson was presented with the award and a plaque at the agency's business meeting on July 9 by commissioner Chuck Bennett, chairman of the Habitat, Nongame and Endangered Species Committee.

"Randy's leadership in the formative years of the Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Program was critical to the development of our current, nationally acclaimed program," Bennett said.

In his 14 years as a section manager for the Nongame and Endangered Wildlife program, now called the Wildlife Diversity Program, Wilson secured more than $1 million in grants to fund the program's many projects, created partnerships with other agencies to share critical wildlife inventory data, developed the legislative proposal for North Carolina Wildlife Conservation license plates to generate funding and facilitated a multi-agency partnership to publish the "North Carolina Wildlife Viewing Guide."

"In the truest sense of the term, Randy Wilson was a wildlife conservationist, with a broad vision that encompassed not only game animals but nongame animals as well," said Chris McGrath, the Wildlife Diversity Program coordinator in Wildlife Management and the person who nominated Wilson for the award. "To that end, he sought to build the best nongame program of any state in the nation, at a time when funds for nongame work were limited or nonexistent."

Wilson, a Knightdale resident, retired from the commission in 2004 after 30 years of service.

Last year, Dr. James Parnell, professor emeritus of biological sciences at UNC-Wilmington, received the award in recognition of his pioneering research on colonial nesting waterbirds and shorebirds on dredge-material islands.

For more information on the Wildlife Diversity Program, visit www.ncwildlife.org and click on the link "Give to Wildlife."