On Monday January 23 at 7:00 PM ET author and former Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, H. Dale Hall, will present a lecture on his new book “Compelled: The Evolution of Natural Resource Conservation and Law” at the National Conservation Training Center, Byrd Auditorium, 698 Conservation Way, Shepherdstown, WV.

“Compelled” unfolds the journey of a young U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist being thrust into the controversial world of national conservation issues and the methods used to resolve them. The evolution of conservation history is told through the eyes of a first-hand witness to the first court challenge to the U.S. Clean Water Act and its protection of Waters of the United States, the introduction of expertise in environmental contaminants to unveil the harm of environmental pollutants in federal water development projects, the history of how conservation in the United States was championed by hunters and anglers, the often painful history of the northern spotted owl and the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA), western water wars, and the complete story of the listing of the polar bear as America’s first threatened species under the ESA as a result of global warming. This epic journey also identifies the only real pathway to solving these complex issues: by opening the door for cooperative efforts and building trust between seemingly opposing interests.

H. Dale Hall has more than forty years of professional experience in fish and wildlife resource management in both the federal and private sectors. He served over thirty years in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with duties reaching across the U.S. In the course of those assignments, Hall worked on nearly every high-profile environmental issue in America. A fisheries and wetlands biologist by training, Hall spent significant time working on the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. In his last three and a half years with the FWS, he was nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Following retirement from federal service, Hall was CEO of Ducks Unlimited, Inc., for over nine years. During that time, the organization raised more than $2.3 billion and conserved more than two million acres of wetlands, grasslands, and waterfowl habitat.

There will be an online re- broadcast on January 26, 2023 from 2:00 – 3:00 pm ET

H. Dale Hall, on his new book “Compelled: The Evolution of Natural Resource Conservation and Law” Online at: https://livestream.com/nctc

For more information, please contact Mark Madison (304-876-7276) mark_madison@fws.gov.