"Sam D. Hamilton, who served as the head of the Texas office of the Fish and Wildlife Service during the early and mid 1990s, has been nominated by President Obama to be the national head of the agency.

Hamilton has served in the agency since 1979 and has been the Regional Director of the US Fish & Wildlife Service in Atlanta, Georgia from 1997 until now.

In the 1990s he worked out of Austin as the state administrator for the agency. He was the on-the-ground-man during the pitched battles between environmentalists and ranchers over how to treat the habitat of the golden-cheeked warbler, which was declared an endangered species during the presidency of George H.W. Bush."

Asher Price reports in the Salsa Verde blog for the Austin American-Statesman June 10, 2009. [2]