Chincoteague Refuge has experienced many changes over the years. No, I'm not talking about the westward movement of the beach due to erosion, or waterfowl and habitat changes. I'm talking about personnel changes. In my twenty-eight years of being employed by Chincoteague Refuge, I have seen many, many faces come and go.

Here are the latest additions to the staff of Chincoteague NWR. If you haven't met them, please stop in and introduce yourself. You'll be glad you did!

Refuge Operation Specialist, Geralyn Mireles
Geralyn filled the vacancy created by Karen Pacheco, who transferred to Savannah Coastal Refuge Complex in Georgia. Geralyn is a "SCEP" graduate. "SCEP" means Student Career Experience Program, and is the same as the coop program that we all are familiar with. Geralyn received her coop experience with the Bureau of Land Management in Colorado and her college education at Texas A & M.

Refuge Operation Specialist, Daniel Stotts
Dan filled the vacancy created by Barron Crawford, who transferred to Prime Hook NWR and is the new project leader there. Dan transferred to USFWS from USGS at Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD, where he was a biologist.

Refuge Interns, Deanna Burns & Kimberly Check
Deanna and Kim are interning for the public use department. Both were summer employees of the National Park Service and decided to come and give us a try after their positions ended. Most of Deanna's time is spent in environmental education, while Kim's is concentrated on interpretation. Deanna and Kim, both from Pennsylvania, are assets to our public use staff .

Refuge Intern, Tamiko Stone
Tamiko is our newest intern and is working in the biology department. She has been very busy with waterfowl surveys, waterfowl production surveys, scent stations, wildlife data entry and gathering information for wildlife management plans. She comes to us from Newport News, Virginia.

Babies...

Tom and Angela Roster are the proud parents of a new baby boy - Colm Patrick Roster. Colm was born on 10/10/01, at 6:19 PM, and weighed 7 lbs. 13 oz. Congratulations!

Frank & Angela Tracy are the proud parents of a new baby girl - Lauren Louise Tracy. Lauren was born on 11/03/01, at 4:47 a.m., and weighed 7 lbs. 1 oz. She is affectionately called "little Laurel Lou" by her parents and BIG sister. Congratulations!

Susan Merritt