NY: Hulbert appointed new fisheries bureau chief






Posted: Thursday, November 11, 2010 12:00 pm | Updated: 3:19 pm, Wed Nov 10, 2010.

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Albany - DEC has filled its fisheries bureau chief position left vacant by the retirement earlier this year of interim chief Art Newell.
Phil Hulbert, who had been serving as superintendent of fish culture, overseeing the state's dozen fish hatcheries and its Rome disease control unit laboratory, was appointed fisheries bureau chief last month.
DEC Director of Fish,
Wildlife and Marine Resources Patricia Riexinger, in announcing Hulbert's appointment, noted that he has "worked on numerous projects" during his DEC tenure.

"Including evaluations of stream improvement structures, statewide creel and minimum length limits in trout streams, sea lamprey control, the statewide trout stream stocking system and manual, and the development and use of ultra-low phosphorus fish feed in DEC's hatchery system," Riexinger said in an internal memo announcing the appointment.
In addition, a 2003 report Hulbert prepared on hatchery infrastructure needs, Riexinger said, "was instrumental in efforts to obtain capital budget appropriations for projects such as the reconstruction of broodstock ponds at the Rome lab and the construction of a new office-early rearing-visitor center at the Rome hatchery."

Hulbert succeeds Newell, who in September took advantage of the state's early retirement incentive offer and left DEC.

Newell had been serving as interim fisheries bureau chief since last year, when provisional appointee Steve Hurst had to step down due to Civil Service Commission regulations that prevented him from holding the post.
Hurst's name was fourth on the Civil Service list, and since it wasn't among the top three - and one individual ahead of him on the list had expressed an interest in the position - he had to relinquish the job.

Hurst had been appointed to fill the fisheries bureau chief position when Doug Stang was named assistant director of DEC's Bureau of Fish, Wildlife and Marine Resources.

Hulbert received his graduate and undergraduate degrees from the University of Maine at Orono in 1973 and 1971, respectively. He was initially employed at the Maine Cooperative Fisheries Research Unit, where he studied the feasibility of Atlantic salmon restoration in parts of the Penobscot River system.
He came to the DEC in 1977, working with the coldwater special studies unit in Stamford. In 1986, he was appointed coldwater fisheries unit leader in DEC's Albany office. He has served as superintendent of fish culture since 1996.

Hulbert's professional activities also extend beyond New York. He was a member of the Sport Fishing and Boating Partnership Council's steering committee on the National Fish Hatchery Project, which authored a report on the national fish hatchery system titled, "Saving a System in Peril - A Special Report on the National Fish Hatchery System."

He also served as the East Coast representative to the Whirling Disease Initiative's steering committee from 1998-2009.
Hulbert said he believes DEC has approval to fill the fish culture superintendent position left vacant by his appointment as fisheries chief. The state has been under a hiring freeze for some time but generally receives permission to "backfill" supervisory positions.