Volume 154, No. 70 covering the 2nd Session of the 110th Congress (2007 - 2008) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“TRIBUTE TO MICHAEL J. BARTLETT” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the Senate section on pages S3590-S3591 on April 30, 2008.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TRIBUTE TO MICHAEL J. BARTLETT
Mr. SUNUNU. Mr. President, I wish to pay tribute to Michael J. Bartlett, supervisor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service New England Field Office, who is retiring after four decades of exemplary public service. My home State of New Hampshire, the New England region, and our Nation have benefitted greatly from Mike's efforts as a tireless defender of our natural resources.
After completing military service over 37 years ago, Mike joined the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a staff biologist. Prior to his current role, he served as a project leader in the New Jersey Ecological Services Office, Northeast regional chief of field operations, and Northeast deputy assistant regional director.
Like any good steward, Mike has left things better than he found them in each of these positions. Throughout his time with the Fish and Wildlife Service, Mike has fostered accountability, efficiency, and teamwork. For his accomplishments in strengthening employee-supervisor relationships and improving overall employee satisfaction, Mike was honored with the Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region's ``Invest in People'' award.
Mike's leadership and collaborative approach to natural resource protection are widely respected. As Supervisor of the New England Field Office, Mike has minimized the adversarial nature of his office's regulatory role and repeatedly brought parties together for mutually beneficial outcomes. At the same time, Mike has been unwavering in his dedication to natural resource protection.
Mike was instrumental in complex and lengthy negotiations with the Maine aquaculture industry, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency, and State of Maine that resulted in strong protections for endangered Atlantic salmon. Additionally, under his supervision, the New England Field Office has secured significant resource benefits by negotiating numerous settlement agreements on contentious hydroelectric project license renewals. For example, a mitigation fund created as part of the relicensing of the Fifteen Mile Falls hydroelectric project on the Connecticut River has allowed the restoration of 20 miles of river habitat, protection of over 25,000 acres of watershed lands, and fish passage improvements.
Under Mike's supervision, the New England Field Office has been a wise steward of natural resource damage assessment funds. Mike has insisted that such funds be used to obtain the greatest possible benefit for fish and wildlife impacted by oilspills and other environmental degradation. In Maine, settlement funds totaling $8 million were used to leverage over $100 million in additional investment to protect habitat for common loons and ducks that were impacted by the North Cape oilspill in Rhode Island. The combined funds secured the protection of 1.5 million acres and more than 200 lakes and ponds that provide nesting habitat for over 125 pairs of loons and 600 pairs of common eiders. In Massachusetts, settlement funds have been used to preserve endangered roseate tern colonies in Buzzards Bay, restore saltmarsh and eelgrass beds, and provide herring with spawning habitat on the Acushnet River.
Mike's emphasis on collaboration shines through in the exceptional work performed by his office through the Fish and Wildlife Service Partners program. During Mike's tenure as supervisor of the New England Field Office, the program has restored hundreds of miles of river access and thousands of acres of wetlands in the region. In New Hampshire, thanks to a highly successful dam removal program that Mike conceived and helped to create, I have witnessed improvements to our rivers such as the Contoocook and Souhegan. Meanwhile, the Partners program has restored coastal saltmarsh in Greenland, Newmarket, Newington, Hampton, Rye and North Hampton, New Hampshire. This and similar work throughout New England has enhanced landscapes and preserved critical habitat for Atlantic salmon, American shad, American eel, brook trout, and freshwater mussels.
Mike's work has also benefitted many species including Indiana bats, New England cottontail rabbits, and a variety of migratory birds such as piping plovers, bobolinks, eastern meadowlarks, loons, roseate terns, and bald eagles. His stewardship has even impacted the smallest of species. Mike's negotiation of an agreement with the city of Concord, the New Hampshire Department of Fish and Game, and private partners has ensured the protection of the federally endangered Karner blue butterfly through cooperative management of 300 acres of habitat at the Concord City Airport.
Mike plans to teach in his retirement, and this is fitting because he has already been a mentor, coach, and teacher for many individuals. Mike's dedication and his outgoing and gregarious personality, to which colleagues and friends attribute much of his success, are widely admired. The inspiration Mike provides for others will undoubtedly continue to be a catalyst for conservation.
Mike is to be commended for his extensive work on behalf of fish, wildlife, wetlands, and conservation in general. I am certain that Mike's retirement will be enjoyable, as some say that his professional and personal attributes may be equaled only by his aquatic resource collection skills with a fly rod. Mike's upcoming time for angling, hunting, kayaking, and relaxing with his wife, children, and grandchildren, is well-deserved. I wish Mike and his family great success in the years to come.
____________________
Alerts Sign-up