The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Jan. 7 announced Eric MacMillan as the new assistant regional director for the Fish and Aquatic Conservation (FAC) program in the Pacific Region, which spans Idaho, Washington, Oregon and the Pacific Islands.
It also includes the Columbia and Snake rivers.
In his new role, MacMillan will oversee the cooperative management of 12 national fish hatcheries, four Fish and Wildlife conservation offices, the Abernathy Fish Technology Center, the Pacific Region Fish Health Center, and the Lower Snake River Compensation Plan program office.
The programs provide millions of steelhead and Pacific salmon each year to support the Pacific Salmon Treaty and commercial, recreational and Tribal harvest.
During the previous six years, MacMillan worked for FAC headquarters in Falls Church, Virginia, first as the national aquatic habitat coordinator, and then as manager for the Branch of Aquatic Habitat Conservation.
In this most recent role, he led a diverse portfolio for FAC, administering national programs focused on military lands and aquatic habitat conservation, including the conservation program’s implementation of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding through the National Fish Passage Program.
“We work closely with Tribes, states, and a wide range of partners to manage culturally and economically important fish and aquatic resources,” Hugh Morrison, regional director for the Service’s Pacific Region, explained. “Eric MacMillan will bring a thoughtful, collaborative, and solution-oriented approach, an emphasis on partnerships, and a love of fish, fisheries and the (Pacific) Northwest.”
MacMillan, who grew up in Twin Falls, Idaho, earned an undergraduate degree in biology from Willamette University in Oregon, and then a master’s degree in fisheries and wildlife at Michigan State University.
He has been a technician with state agencies in Idaho, Oregon, and Wyoming, worked at a commercial rainbow trout hatchery, and had a short stint as a deckhand on a salmon fishing boat on the Oregon coast.
Following graduate school, MacMillan worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Restoration Center focused on Great Lakes and Pacific salmon habitat restoration and supporting restoration planning efforts for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
He then worked for the NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources conducting Endangered Species Act section 7 consultations.
“I am beyond thrilled to come home to the Pacific Northwest to further the incredible work of the Fish and Aquatic Conservation program in the Pacific Region,” MacMillan said. “After spending numerous years supporting the program at a national level, I am looking forward to being closer to the staff in the field, supporting the science, restoration, partnerships and management happening on the ground.”