An Interview with Officer Mike Bireley,
Enforcement Officer, Eastern Region, South Detachment
Fish and Wildlife Officer Mike Bireley was honored in 2000 as the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Employee of the Year for creating a pilot "Cooperative Compliance Review Program" in the Walla Walla River Basin where wild salmonids are listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). He was also recognized for his efforts to develop specialized environmental enforcement measures involving fish and wildlife hydraulics and habitat violations. Mike is a 26-year WDFW veteran, having served in enforcement officer and sergeant positions in Chehalis, Yakima, Dayton, and now Walla Walla. He was instrumental in developing the former Department of Game's first Community Affairs program in Seattle and headed up the Hunter Education program in Olympia for four years. Mike entered military service after graduating high school in Tennessee and first lived in Washington when he was assigned to the USAF Survival School at Fairchild AFB near Spokane after returning from a tour of duty in Southeast Asia in 1969. He later majored in wildlife management at Oregon State University, where his intent was to be a wildlife research biologist, but a fish and wildlife enforcement opening was his first opportunity and he's made a career of it ever since. Mike is enjoying his current work -- helping landowners comply with ESA rules for wild salmonids -- more than ever because, as he says, "I'm doing things FOR people, instead of TO them."
Full interview
