Two finalists picked for next director of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

Two finalists have been picked to become the next director of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Debbie Colbert and Kaitlin Lovell were selected from a pool of 30 candidates to lead an agency with more than 1,000 employees and the often polarizing task of managing the state’s fauna.

Either would become the first woman to ever hold the position in the agency with a history dating back to the 1800s.

Curt Melcher, who had been director since 2014, retired in April.

Colbert is current ODFW deputy director for fish and wildlife programs while Lovell leads the Portland Bureau of Environmental Services on stream restoration. They were chosen by a subcommittee that included two members of the Fish and Wildlife Commission and two representatives of Gov. Tina Kotek’s office.

The candidates will have a public question and answer session Friday before the full commission meeting at ODFW headquarters in Salem. Afterward, the commission may pick the new director. The meeting is open to the public and will be streamed live at: www.dfw.state.or.us/agency/commission/

An online form remains available until 5 p.m. on Tuesday to submit questions for the candidates during the public question and answer.

The job is one of Oregon’s more challenging, often putting the agency in the middle of the state’s urban-rural divide over issues such as wolf and cougar management, hatchery versus wild fish, and the cost for fishing and hunting licenses, among many other issues.

Other candidates considered were Shannon Hurn, ODFW deputy director for administration, and Jason Miner, former natural resources policy advisor for former Gov. Kate Brown.

Debbie Colbert

Colbert has worked for two decades on natural resources issues, according to the biography provided by the hiring committee.  

Since 2021, Colbert has served as ODFW’s deputy director for fish and wildlife programs, overseeing fish, wildlife, habitat, and regional programs statewide as well as legislative engagement.

“In this leadership role, she has been thrilled to collaborate with ODFW’s many talented staff, hunters, anglers, tribal leaders and staff, volunteers, landowners, state and federal agency staff, elected officials, and statewide advocacy groups,” the biography said.

In 2023, Colbert served three months on special assignment to the governor’s natural resource office.

Previously, Colbert served six years as the board of trustees administrator at Oregon State University. Before that, she worked for five years as ODFW’s deputy director for administration.

Colbert earned a bachelor's degree in biology and has a master's in oceanography and a doctorate in interdisciplinary oceanography. She was selected as a 2022 National Conservation Leadership Fellow.

“Debbie is passionate about working with diverse groups to advance Oregon’s fish, wildlife, and habitat,” the biography said.

Kaitlin Lovell

Lovell has led the City of Portland’s efforts to protect and restore fish and wildlife and their habitats since 2007, the provided biography said.

“Lovell has strategically transformed degraded waterways, resolved competing land uses, protected fish and wildlife against acute climate impacts, and centered frontline communities, especially Indigenous communities, in fish and wildlife management,” the biography said.

Prior to working for Portland, Lovell worked as an attorney for Trout Unlimited on salmon recovery, hydropower and hatchery issues throughout Oregon and the West Coast.

“A lifelong resident of rural places, including 22 years on her Colton area farm with her husband and son, she knows firsthand the challenges and rewards of living with wildlife, adapting to climate change, and the critical role of working lands in habitat protection and restoration,” the biography said.

Lovell is a graduate of Bucknell University’s environmental science program and Cornell Law School, with legal expertise in the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act.

Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 16 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast. Urness is the author of “Best Hikes with Kids: Oregon” and “Hiking Southern Oregon.” He can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on X at @ZachsORoutdoors.