RALEIGH — The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission unanimously elected a new chairman and vice-chairman during its business meeting today to preside over the governing board of the state regulatory agency.
John Litton Clark, of Clinton and the District 4 commissioner, will serve as chairman; John T. Coley IV, of Holly Springs and a governor-at-large Appointee, will serve as vice chairman.
Clark replaces James W. Cogdell of Norwood, who is the District 6 commissioner. Coley replaces Clark, the newly elected chairman.
The 19-member Commission establishes policies and regulations governing boating, hunting, trapping and inland fishing, and wildlife-conservation activities in North Carolina. Appointments to the Commission are made by the Governor, the Speaker of the State House and the President Pro Tempore of the N.C. Senate, with commissioners serving until reappointed or replaced.
As required by General Statute, at the first scheduled meeting after July 1 of each odd-numbered year, wildlife commissioners must select a chairman and a vice-chairman, who then serve for terms of two years or until their successors are elected and qualified.
More information on wildlife commissioners, meeting schedules and actions, and public hearings, is available at www.ncwildlife.org/about.
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Beane receives award
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Jeff Beane, a well-known naturalist and dedicated conservationist, received the Thomas L. Quay Wildlife Diversity Award recently at the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s business meeting in Raleigh.
The Commission presents the Thomas L. Quay Wildlife Diversity Award, one of its most prestigious honors, annually to individuals who make outstanding contributions to wildlife diversity in North Carolina and who are considered leaders in wildlife resources conservation.
Beane, who has been the collections manager for herpetology at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences since 1995, accepted the award, along with a framed print, from Gordon Myers, the Commission’s executive director.
“Mr. Beane has distinguished himself as an individual who has made long-lasting and far-reaching contributions to wildlife diversity in North Carolina,” Myers said.
Beane is well known in conservation circles for his love of and work with reptiles and amphibians, collectively known as “herps,” particularly the northern pine snake, southern hognose snake and bog turtle. He has documented the presence of species on a county-by-county basis across the state, which is extremely important in helping detect declines or disappearances of species, according to Jeff Hall, a wildlife biologist with the Commission and one of three nominators.
