Richard Hines

Certifications

• Certified Wildlife Biologist
• Wetland Delineator
• Stream Measurements
• Abnormal Amphibian Surveys
• Shorebird Management
• Waterfowl Management
• Right of Way Management for Wildlife

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Expertise

• Managing National Wildlife Refuges.
• Habitat assessment, development and technical guidance for the Eastern U.S., Great Plains, Midwest Oak-Hickory Region, Southeast Coastal Plain, Appalachian Mountains and Cumberland Plateau.
• Biological assessments.
• Endangered species.
• Stream Assessment/Measurement.
• Project Design and Management of wetlands, oak savannah, prairie, upland forests.
• Refuge Improvement Act.
• Developing hunting and fishing management plans for NWR, state wildlife management areas, and setting harvest objectives to maintain game species within carrying capacity of habitat.
• Designing surveys and analysis of game harvest numbers.
• Management of waterfowl, shorebirds, and neotropical migrant songbirds.
• Writing and designing facility information, interpretive brochures and trail guides.

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Experience

• National Wildlife Refuge Manager, Cross Creek National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), Tennessee. Supervised a staff of six permanent and seasonal employees and a 790K budget. Supervised contractors on numerous construction projects, invasive plant species eradication, removal of feral hogs, building construction, road repairs, levee construction, and wildlife management and research.
• Served as Acting Refuge Manager on Noxubee NWR, Mississippi.
• As Refuge Wildlife Biologist, I supervised surveys, removal of feral hogs, eradication of invasive plant species and all wildlife research projects on White River NWR in Arkansas.
• Authored or Co-Authored Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP) for Cross Creeks NWR, Tennessee NWR and White River NWR CCP.
• Conducted Biological Reviews for Atchafalaya NWR, Felsenthal NWR, Bald Knob NWR, White River NWR, Cross Creeks NWR, Tennessee NWR, and Pond Creek NWR.
• Coordinated with the National Park Service in developing hunting and fishing opportunities on the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area in Kentucky.
• Served on Southeastern Forest Technical Committee and was primary liaison between the US Forest Service and Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR).
• Coordinated with Kentucky Division of Mine Reclamation and Division of Abandoned Mines on implementing and developing wildlife options in coal mine reclamation plans.
• Responsible for representing KDFWR on timber harvest, mineral extraction, exploration, road development on the Daniel Boone National Forest, Kentucky.
• Supervised and prepared National Wildlife Refuge Special Use Permits for research, utility right of ways, gas exploration, farming, temporary river barge docking.
• Served on the Ivory-billed Woodpecker endangered species recovery team, Arkansas.
• Served on US Fish &Wildlife Service, Region 4 Science Review Team dealing with agriculture issues including herbicides, genetically modified crops, crop rotations, cooperative contracting, forest management for neotropical migrant songbirds and waterfowl use of agriculture crops.
• Prepared Compatibility Determinations for numerous issues for compliance under the Refuge Administration Act.
• Prepared Pesticide Use Proposals for farming, invasive control on terrestrial and aquatic habitat on NWRs.
• Abnormal amphibian survey of White River NWR, Arkansas.
• Chimney Swift Survey, documented four of ten known natural nesting cavities of chimney swifts in North America (Arkansas).
• Black Bear surveys in Arkansas.
• American Alligator surveys in Florida, Texas, and Arkansas.
• Hardwood mast surveys in Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas.
• White-tailed deer surveys, harvest strategies and herd evaluations in Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia and Louisiana.
• Oak Savannah restoration in Northeast Texas.
• Served on State of Kentucky Deer Management Team.
• Co-Authored guidelines for commercial outfitters providing waterfowl hunting trips in White River NWR.
• Served as field supervisor for fourteen graduate students. Examples of research were black bear denning ecology; territorial requirements of prothonotary warblers; nesting ecology of Swainson’s warblers; feeding strategies of mallards on rice fields; waterfowl use in moist soil impoundments; fish assemblies of oxbow lakes; and silt deposition in bottomland hardwood forests in Kentucky, Tennessee and Texas.
• Developed water management plan for 160,000-acre White River NWR in Arkansas.
• Designed and provided guidance to a private hunting concession for development of habitat for waterfowl, white-tailed deer, scaled quail and northern bobwhite and management techniques on the Gulf Coast in the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico.
• In 2019 completed the course "Physical Science of Forests, Climate Regulation, and Carbon Storage", curated by Michigan State University’s Forest Carbon and Climate Program.  This course provided foundational knowledge in the relationship between climate regulation, forests, and forest carbon. In five modules, the course covered the 1) Carbon Cycle and Storage, 2) Humans, the Global Carbon Cycle, and Terrestrial Sinks, 3) Forest Ecosystems and Carbon Storage, 4) Forest Ecosystem Carbon Pools and Fluxes, and 5) Disturbances and their Carbon Impact.

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Professional Outdoor Writer/Photographer

Authored or Co-Authored of numerous publications in Journal of Wildlife Management; Southeastern Naturalist; National Grassland Conference; Southeastern Association of Game and Fish Conference; and Journal of Wetland Science on waterfowl, black bear, fish assemblages in oxbow lakes, alligator gar, crappie, chimney swifts, waterfowl use of green-tree reservoirs.

Over the past 20 years, my popular articles/photographs have appeared in fifteen regional and national magazines. I write for a wide range of outdoor magazines covering fishing, hunting, outdoor recreation and conservation issues. One national publication, Gamekeepers, is focused on resource management articles covering forest management, conducting timber harvests, timber stand improvements, developing roads and trails for woodland owners, managing impoundments for migratory waterfowl in spring and fall, waterfowl, developing cooperatives for northern bobwhite (quail), various aspects of prescribed fire, using trail cameras for wildlife surveys. Currently President of the Tennessee Outdoor Writers Association.