[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 7412]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     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.

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