Henderson man, 'face of wildlife refuge in Kentucky,' earns national honor

HENDERSON, Ky. – From among the country’s more than 560 national wildlife refuges, the manager of the new Green River National Wildlife Refuge in Henderson County has been honored as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as its national refuge manager of the year.

Michael Johnson, a 30-year veteran with the service, received the 2022 Paul Kroegel National Wildlife Refuge Manager of the Year.

The Fish & Wildlife Service said he “is known as the face of the National Wildlife Refuge System in Western Kentucky.”

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The award is given in honor of Kroegel, who was the first manager of the first refuge established in 1903 at Pelican Island, Florida.

Johnson, who also manages the much larger Clarks River Refuge near Benton, Kentucky, and his team are credited with getting the Green River Refuge established in 2019, when it became the nation’s 568th refuge and only the second in Kentucky.

Green River began with a 10-acre donation from the Southern Conservation Corp. (SCC), a non-profit Conservation Land Trust started in 2003. The Fish & Wildlife Service said the donation resulted from Johnson’s prior work with SCC to conserve habitats in and around Clark’s River Refuge.

In 2021, Green River Refuge expanded to 707 acres with funding from the national Land and Water Conservation Fund, consisting of offshore oil and gas revenues. The eventual goal for the Green River Refuge is to expand to 24,000 acres through land acquisitions from willing sellers.

The Green River Refuge is located near, but is entirely distinct from the Green River State Forest near Baskett.

“It definitely is and will become a very special place,” Johnson said of the Green River Refuge in a phone interview. “All of our refuges are special in their own way. We all want it to happen tomorrow. It’s just going to take time. As long as we stay patient and stay the course, it will be something we’re all proud of, not just that community but everybody — anybody coming in visiting, everybody.”

Acreage eligible for the refuge includes:

• The Horseshoe Bend area northwest of Henderson;

• The land across the Ohio River around Ellis Park racetrack that is part of Kentucky;

• High ground south of the Green River and east of Henderson that’s referred to as the Bluff Unit;

• The vast Scuffletown river bottomland north of the Green River from the mouth of the Green River to the Daviess County line; and

• Land south of the Green River stretching from Spottsville to the Daviess County line that’s called the Green River Unit.

Johnson said the desire is to acquire contiguous property as much as possible. “We have focused on the Horseshoe Bend and Bluff areas” in these early years of land acquisition, he said.

In describing how long it will take for a large refuge such as Green River to grow to tens of thousands of acres, he said, “We typically say it is long term, anywhere from 20 to 40 years, but in reality, we’ll probably be at it hard and heavy for several years, up to eight or 10 (years) and see where we’re at and see if that emphasis and desires continues for another 30 years.

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“That really depends on the community and how much they want to keep it at the forefront. Administrations change, positions change, but if the community is staying engaged. it will always keep on the forefront,” he said. “We’ll stay with it as long as I’m around, but it’s going to take the community” to remain interested over the long haul.

The new refuge includes a 5,000-square-foot facility which will serve as refuge headquarters.

“Michael’s ability to form relationships and work with diverse groups of people was essential in establishing and garnering public support for the Green River Refuge,” Leopoldo Miranda-Castro, the service’s Southeast Regional Director, said in a news release.

“He listened and worked with the communities to gather their support for the new refuge,” Miranda-Castro said. “As a result, the community understood that lands for this refuge would complement local and state efforts to conserve the area’s natural heritage and to provide increased public access for recreational opportunities, such as hunting and fishing. Local supporters also recognize that refuge lands will keep working for both people and wildlife, including agricultural use and other land management techniques.”

Johnson leads a staff of six people who oversee both the 9,500-acre Clarks River National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1998, and the Green River Refuge. He has managed Clark’s River for 18 years.

In 2019, the staff of Clarks River Refuge, including Johnson, was presented the Tennessee River Ripple Effect Award for the Government Department category for works to protect and improve Tennessee River Valley waterways.

Most recently, Johnson received the Service’s Southeast Regional Director Honors Award for outstanding performance in 2021 for his efforts and commitment to establishing Green River Refuge.

Johnson is also lauded as a mentor. As manager of Clarks River, he assisted more than 22 student volunteers with employment in federal, state, and non-profit wildlife conservation agencies.

One of Johnson’s priorities for the new Green River National Wildlife refuge was forming an active Friends of Green River NWR group that is supporting acquisitions and resource management activities and quality wildlife dependent recreation the community.

Johnson and his team planned and celebrated the formalization of this partnership at a virtual signing ceremony in 2020 for Friends Group members and service regional leaders during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chase Fulcher, president of the Friends of Green River NWR, said when his friend Mike Morton recruited him to become part of the organization, “He told me all about Michael and I met Michael and I was so impressed. I can call him at 5 in the morning or 7 or 8 at night. I never met someone who works as an employee of federal government who acts like it’s his own personal business.”

Fulcher praised Johnson’s “work ethic, passion, honesty and willingness to do whatever it takes to get the job done and benefitting Henderson, and he’s not even from Henderson.”

Fulcher added that he expects that after the ceremonial groundbreaking for the approach to the planned Interstate 69 bridge east of Henderson, he expects the Green River Refuge to grow exponentially in the coming years as land is acquired to mitigate the loss of wetlands because of the highway construction.

According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, permitted activities at the Green River Refuge currently include photography; bicycle and horseback riding on refuge graveled roads or improved trails; and picnicking, wildlife observation, and exercise and meditation, all during daytime only. Other public uses, including hunting and fishing, are expected to eventually be permitted after planning and rulemaking are completed and more land is acquired.

Additional information about the refuge is available online.

This article originally appeared on Henderson Gleaner: Michael Johnson of Henderson, Kentucky, honored for wildlife work