Written by Peter Pearsall/Feature Image by Alan Nyiri
Photo courtesy of Tara Wertz
After a nearly 40-year career in wildlife conservation—including 22 years with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Deputy Project Leader Tara Wertz is retiring.
As Deputy Project Leader beginning in October 2021, Wertz worked with and supervised Refuge staff who execute the day-to-day duties of the various programs at the Refuge, including the Biological Program and Refuge Maintenance. Wertz also worked collaboratively with Refuge staff and partners on management of Refuge meadows, restoration of Malheur Lake, and developing a planning process for evaluating rehabilitation opportunities for the Donner and Blitzen River, among several other priority Refuge programs and projects.
Wertz is particularly proud of helping to facilitate the working relationship between the Biological Program and Refuge Maintenance staff. Both groups work closely together to ensure that wildlife needs and recreation priorities are met across the Refuge. “In the short time that I’ve been at Malheur, I’ve helped to get a lot of things started with Refuge staff and programs that I unfortunately won’t see fully completed,” Wertz said. “But I’m confident that this very competent staff can move things forward.”
Over her 22-year career with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wertz has worked at Refuges as remote as Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northern Alaska and as urban as Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in southern Florida, which sees upward of 800,000 visitors a year.
“While those Refuges sit at opposite ends of the visitor-use spectrum, Malheur Refuge is an interesting combination of the two,” Wertz said. “For the lower 48, Malheur is a huge, remote Refuge—but it is similar to Ding Darling in that everyone comes here for the birds. It’s another international birding hotspot.
“We do have world-class bird viewing here. Just less visitor-focused infrastructure. We’re not that kind of Refuge and we enjoy that. Let’s celebrate that. Let’s share that.”
Wertz’s last day at Malheur Refuge is October 31, 2023.
“I feel very blessed to have had the career I’ve had,” Wertz said. “I’ve wanted to be a wildlife biologist since I was 13 years old, a kid from the cornfields of Indiana. I followed through on my dream, and doors opened. I’m grateful to have had a career that I can look back on and say that my vocation has always been my avocation.”
