Myers named wildlife director

After a year-long nationwide search, the new Executive Director of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission was found within the building.

Gordon Myers, the deputy director of operations at the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, was named to the post at a meeting of the wildlife commission Wednesday.

He will replace the interim director, Fred Harris, who was one of three finalists for the position. Harris was named interim director after former Executive Director Dick Hamilton was forced to resign last August.

Myers, 43, of Raleigh said that the transition needs to be worked out, but he expects to take charge of the commission today. Myers is a 1990 graduate of N.C. State University (civil engineering) and is married with two children.

Harris will continue his post of chief deputy director until Oct. 1.

"It's been an interesting period," Harris said of his tenure, which included his near-resignation once. "There's mixed feelings, but it's probably time for me to go. It's probably time for some new thinking and new energy at the leadership level."

"Today is the last day we will operate as we always have," said Wes Seegars, chairman of the Wildlife Commission, the 19-member governing board of the agency, in a commission news release. "Beginning tomorrow, with the transition of leadership, we will become a new, more dynamic agency that will continue to nurture and value the relationships we have with our conservation partners, and begin to develop new programs that will promote and embrace our mission."

As executive director, Myers will oversee a statewide agency of six divisions with some 675 permanent employees and an annual operating budget of approximately $60 million.

Agency operations include maintaining more than 2 million acres of game lands for hunting, fishing and other outdoor recreation; operating six fish hatcheries for stocking public waters; providing 205 public boating access areas; operating three wildlife education centers and a fishing education center; and offering free hunter education and recreational boating safety courses.

In other business of interest to waterfowlers, the wildlife commissioners voted to add one wood duck to the daily bag limit, upping it to three.