Date: Tue, 04/30/2013 Contact:Chris Wood, President and CEO, (703) 284-9403, cwood@tu.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Trout Unlimited: David Hayes will be missed at DOI Washington D.C. — Outgoing Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Hayes' experience and institutional knowledge will be missed when he leaves the Department of Interior at the end of June, said Chris Wood, president and CEO of Trout Unlimited. "David Hayes defines all that is good about public service," Wood said. "He understands the imperative of protecting special places such as Bristol Bay, Alaska–the world's most important salmon fishery–from industrial mining. Yet, in a demonstration of his balance, he also led Interior's push to expand renewable energy development on public lands while protecting fish, wildlife and water resources." Hayes has served under both the Clinton and Obama administrations, and he is the longest-serving deputy secretary in the federal government. He's been involved in a number significant Department of Interior initiatives over the last four years, including onshore oil and gas lease reforms that resulted in fewer protested leases and a more streamlined process, as well as a landscape-scale federal plan for climate change response. "David is smart, hard-working and very responsive to constituents, regardless of what side of the aisle they sit," Wood continued. "He is a strong advocate of using collaboration to resolve vexing natural resource problems such as on the Klamath and Penobscot rivers where dam removal will open hundreds of miles for migrating salmon and other ocean-going fish. He will be missed." --- Trout Unlimited is the nation's oldest and largest coldwater fisheries conservation organization, boasting 150,000 members from coast to coast. For more information about TU, follow us on Facebook and Twitter, or visit us at www.tu.org.