3 Restoration Projects in Maine: Bald Eagles, the Penobscot River, and American Chestnut

Description

Ray “Bucky” Owen, former Commissioner of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife (MDIFW ) and a longtime conservationist, teacher, and outdoorsman, will share insights on three successful conservation projects in Maine on Saturday, April 19, at the Wendell Gilley Museum in a program co-sponsored by Downeast Trout Unlimited.

“Three Restoration Projects in Maine: Bald Eagles, the Penobscot River, and American Chestnuts,” is a free program offered both in person and online.

Registration is required at www.wendellgilleymuseum.org. Please indicate whether you will be attending at the Gilley or via Zoom. For online attendees, a link will be sent to you the day before the program.

Mr. Owen spent 31 years as a faculty member at the University of Maine in wildlife ecology, including chairing the Wildlife Department for a decade. In 1993, he was appointed Commissioner of MDIFW during the governorship of Angus King. During his tenure there he launched the Quality Fishing Initiative, a program that made sweeping changes to how Maine's wild native brook trout were managed. He also served as chair of the Maine Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, chair of the Orono Land Trust, and chairman for the Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission. He was a U.S. delegate to the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization, and a key player along with his wife, Sue, in the Penobscot River Restoration Project to remove dams and restore eleven species of migratory fish to the waters of the Penobscot, working closely with the Penobscot Nation. Mr. Owen was awarded the prestigious Lee Wulff Award from Atlantic Salmon Federation in 2009. In 2024 he received the Common Good Award from this alma mater, Bowdoin College, where he studied biology. He later earned a Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Illinois.