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Department of Conservation and Recreation
Over the past 25 years, Rick Myers worked to build up a growing state program to manage and steward Virginia’s natural area preserves.
Myers recently retired from his position as the natural areas stewardship manager for the Virginia Natural Heritage Program.
“Working in DCR’s Natural Heritage Program for the last 25 years of my 44-year natural resources career has been both challenging and fulfilling,” Myers said. “I’m grateful for the many opportunities and professional relationships, and am proud to have helped advance the protection of Virginia’s biodiversity.”
Jason Bulluck, director of the Virginia Natural Heritage Program, said, “Over 48,000 acres of land were added to Virginia’s Natural Area Preserves during Rick’s career at Virginia Natural Heritage. His leadership and guidance supported the hard work of DCR’s natural area stewards, conservation partners and volunteers, on every acre of the preserves, all of which secure habitats for rare plant and animal species. Thanks to his dedication, today DCR’s Natural Heritage Program is an outstanding national model of full-circle biodiversity conservation – from identification of the best examples of Virginia’s natural heritage resources, to their permanent conservation, to the on-the-ground management that further enhances the quality of Virginia’s natural communities.”
The program is responsible for managing the Virginia Natural Area Preserve System, which has grown to a total of 66 preserves across the state. On these 61,066 acres of public lands, more than 760 natural communities and rare species populations have been documented. (A natural community is an assemblage of native plants and animals that occurs repeatedly on the landscape under similar ecological conditions.)
DCR’s natural areas stewards are the keepers of these lands, serving a range of management duties to protect the natural heritage resources of each preserve.
Bulluck credits Myers with keeping focus on the codified top priority of long-term biodiversity conservation while also seeking opportunities to provide public access to natural area preserves that does not compromise the viability and resilience of that biodiversity.
Myers, who holds a Ph.D. in forest ecology and previously worked in forestry for Clemson and Purdue universities, has been a leader in the state’s efforts to restore Virginia longleaf pine ecosystems.
Through collaborations with other agencies and nonprofit organizations, Myers launched a Virginia native longleaf pine cone harvesting and seedling production program for restoration projects. This effort has resulted in 750,000 longleaf pine tree seedlings planted across more than 1,500 acres of natural area preserves.
A necessary management tool for restoring the historic and culturally significant ecosystem, for which longleaf pine is a key species, is the use of prescribed fire. Myers helped lead the establishment and growth of an active prescribed fire partnership of state and federal agencies, and The Nature Conservancy, that has been a national model, and which has accomplished immense habitat restoration and management throughout Virginia.
Myers said he plans to be in the garden and on boats during his retirement. He's looking forward to spending more time with family and friends, supporting his wife Jane (who also works in conservation) as well as playing lots of music, making things out of wood, traveling, fishing and cooking.
Lesley Starke, who previously managed a statewide network of nature preserves in North Carolina for the Plant Conservation Program, is DCR’s new chief of natural areas stewardship.
Categories
Conservation | Land Conservation | Natural Heritage | Nature
