Steve Delehanty is settling into his new position as refuge manager of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, based out of the Islands and Ocean Visitor Center in Homer. In one of his first acts as manager, Delehanty selected Marc Webber, currently manager of Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge in Indiana, as deputy manager. Webber will report about the first of the year.
Delehanty has spent 23 years working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service throughout the country, but this is his first posting in Alaska. “I am thrilled and honored by the opportunity” said Delehanty. “Alaska Maritime is one of the most spectacular, interesting, and challenging refuges in the country, and Homer is certainly an appealing community. With refuge islands and headlands stretching from near Barrow to Sitka, and from Homer to the tip of the Aleutians, the resources and scale of the refuge are unparalleled.”
On his first week on the job, Delehanty flew to Adak where the refuge maintains a seasonal office and took the refuge ship, the M/V Tiglax back to Homer, as it picked up field camps for the season. Delehanty said he was struck by the beauty of the Aleutians, “emerald gems clustered in the sea”, the spectacular wildlife and the efficiency and experience of the crew in getting people and gear on and off remote islands. Most of the 3.4 million acre Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge is in the Aleutian Islands.
Delehanty was most recently manager of the Morris Wetland Management District, 244 federally owned parcels of wetland and grassland scattered like islands amongst the farms of a 3.5 million acre prairie pothole landscape. Providing habitat for nesting waterfowl was the primary purpose of the Wetland Management District. Earlier in his career, Delehanty was the first manager of the St. Croix Wetland Management District in Wisconsin and also worked at the Charles M. Russell Refuge in Montana and other refuges in Minnesota and Illinois.
The new deputy manager, Marc Webber, is a marine biologist with prior Alaskan experience working with marine mammals. He has spent many years in the Pacific and accumulated significant sea time. Webber worked for the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge dealing with nesting seabirds and complex logistics similar to what he will find on the Maritime Refuge. In addition, he served as deputy manager of San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, a refuge noted for its large visitor services program. Webber is excited to get back to Alaska and marine issues.
