Member

Paul was born on January 8, 1946, in Boston, Massachusetts, and was raised in Canada, Vermont, and Pennsylvania. He became interested in fish and fishing while spending summers on the farm in northeastern Vermont because brook trout were numerous and easy to catch (and it was a hell of a lot better than weeding the garden!). He brought minnow buckets of small brookies back from a nearby stream and stocked them in the spring-fed pond next to the house. His reward was larger and more accessible brook trout in a couple years! Voila, the birth of a fish manager! Paul received his BS degree from Pennsylvania State University. After serving as a pilot with the U.S. Air Force, he received his MS degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1974 and began his career in fisheries as assistant area fisheries manager with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. In 1977, he joined the U.S. Forest Service as a fishery biologist in Redding, California, and in 1981 he accepted the position of regional fisheries program manager in Missoula, Montana. In 1984, Paul was promoted to national fisheries program manager in the Forest Service in the Washington, D.C., office. In that position he started the “Rise to the Future” initiative as part of his responsibilities for nationwide programs for the protection, management, and utilization of fisheries and closely related riparian and wetland resources on national forests and grasslands. As deputy director starting in 1986 and then as executive director of the American Fisheries Society from 1991 to 1998, Paul’s responsibilities included Society management, policy and budget advocacy, and congressional and conservation group liaison. Paul became associate deputy chief for the National Forest System in October 1998 and director, Strategic Planning and Resource Assessment in 2000. Paul has principle responsibility for the management of all activities involved in the broad programs of ecosystem management as well as the programs of range, forest, watershed and air, and wildlife, fish, and rare plants management across the 191 million acres of National forests and grasslands . Paul has been active in developing national, scientific, and technical natural resource direction and in promoting federal agency fishery programs to fishery constituent groups and to Congress. He helped develop legislation and policy for cold water, warm water, and anadromous fisheries and for riparian habitat management. Paul is a certified fisheries scientist. He is also a member of The Wildlife Society (and is a certified wildlife biologist), the Society of American Foresters, the Outdoor Writers Association of America, and the American Society of Association Executives. Paul resided in Falls Church, Virginia, with his wife Carol for many years. Their two children have successfully completed medical school. Paul and his wife now enjoy retirement on a farm in Vermont. Paul was elected to the Washington Biologists’ Field Club in 1989.