ANDREW GUDE, REFUGE MANAGER, IS CK AUDUBON’S MARCH SPEAKER
2024 Marxh 12
Andrew Gude will tell you he’s a lucky guy who gets to oversee “two wonderful Refuges”. But, after thirteen years, retirement beckons.
On Monday, March 25th, at the Christ Episcopal Church, Andrew will reflect on his time as manager of the Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys NWRs, including what drew him to this job and what he’s learned. He will also speak about where the Refuges have been, what’s being done now and where they are headed. The public is invited to a 4pm Meet & Greet with refreshments, followed by Andrew’s presentation at 5pm.Andrew has experienced a varied and welltraveled life. He has lived and worked in the Netherlands, throughout the Caribbean, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and has sailed the Indian Ocean. Andrew has been employed as a fishery biologist, commercial fisherman, diving instructor, captain, fishing guide, breath-hold diving spearfisher and lobster diver, environmental educator, and was director of a college study abroad program’s remote field station. He also served on NWRs in the Florida Keys, coastal South Carolina, Hawaii, Alaska, and U.S. Pacific Islands
Before Andrew became the manager for the LSCK Refuges in 2011, he worked for the Director of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Department of the Interior's Assistant Secretary, and as the National Wildlife Refuge System's Ocean and Coastal Refuge Coordinator. In this capacity at the FWS Headquarters Office, he served on a small team that supported President George W. Bush’s designation of the four, 305 million-acre, Pacific Ocean Marine National Monuments as FWS-managed areas. .
Andrew moved to Florida from Washington, D.C. to be nearer to his children and to get back to the field. Since then, he has managed the Crystal River, Chassahowitzka, and Tampa Bay NWRs before taking the LSCK Refuges job.
Andrew is married and has two children that he likes to travel with to remote places. When he’s not at work, and the weather is good, you can find him on the Gulf, free-dive spearfishing.
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