Eric Maynard of Pine Bluff has been named assistant chief of education, overseeing the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s nature centers throughout the state.
According to a news release, leadership within the commission’s education division selected Maynard, who is the current director of the Delta Rivers Nature Center at Regional Park.
An 18-year veteran with Game and Fish, he has seen the completion of all the agency’s nature centers.
“I was actually hired as the Delta Rivers Nature Center director in 1999, when it was still in planning and development,” Maynard said. “The center opened in 2001 and I’ve been here ever since.”
According to the release, Maynard also oversaw a remodel of the center in 2010 as well as the addition of its Alligator and Bald Eagle exhibits. This experience should prove beneficial in the continued development of the Northwest Arkansas nature and education center, which is in the planning stages, he said.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“I’m excited about taking on the challenge of bringing all we’ve learned at Delta Rivers to the Northwest part of the state,” Maynard said. “But I’m also excited to work even more with the directors of the other centers around the state to help share ideas and information that can benefit the public.”
Delta Rivers receives 40,000 to 45,000 visitors each year, but its influence reaches far wider than the Pine Bluff area, he said.
“We’ve always prided ourselves in the fact that we don’t just wait for people to come to us,” Maynard said. “We do a lot of off-site programs from the center, traveling everywhere from Cabot to Hot Springs to Lake Village and everywhere in between.”
According to the release, experience in onsite programming will serve well with Maynard’s other primary responsibility in his new position – overseeing the work of eight Regional Education Coordinators throughout Arkansas. The coodinators play a vital role in supplying the commission’s education message in areas where people cannot make it to a formal location.
It may be a while before visitors stop seeing Maynard at Delta Rivers, however.
“I’ll likely be on the road quite a bit with my new position,” Maynard said. “But I’ll have office space in Little Rock as well as Pine Bluff.”
Maynard is a graduate of Louisiana Tech University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in wildlife conservation.