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MDC names Max Alleger as new regional administrator in Southwest Region

Alleger will lead regional operations to deliver conservation strategic priorities and performance measures

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) has named Fair Grove native Max Alleger as the new regional administrator to lead regional operations in the Southwest Region, including delivering on strategic priorities and performance measures for the region.

Alleger will also oversee regional public resource management, private land, community conservation, regional planning, recreations use, infrastructure maintenance and repair, and regional business operations and compliance. The regional administrator also coordinates with other MDC branches, including protection, science, education, and communications.

“This is an opportunity to help lead the Missouri Department of Conservation into the future, to help address conservation challenges in ways that make a difference on the land, and to keep our agency relevant to all Missourians,” Alleger said. “On a personal note, I love the natural diversity of southwest Missouri, from the forests and streams to the prairies, and I am happy to be back home.”

Alleger’s 24-year career with MDC has been split between the agency’s Wildlife, Private Land Services, and Resource Science divisions. Among the projects he’s been involved with includes work with the Missouri’s greater prairie chicken population, the Audubon Conservation Ranching Initiative (a market-based program that encourages consumers to support grazing practices that benefit wildlife), and an ongoing conservation grazing program that promotes patch-burn grazing to improve grasslands for both wildlife habitat and livestock. Alleger, a 1984 graduate of Fair Grove High School, has dual bachelor’s degrees from the University of Missouri and a master’s degree from Texas A&M University.

“These regional changes are part of the Department’s larger organizational roadmap for the future to build on the success we’ve had over the last 80 years in delivering on our conservation priorities and serving the citizens of Missouri,” said MDC Director Sara Parker Pauley. “We also need to be able to adapt as quickly as the world is changing around us, including successfully tackling increasing natural-resource challenges and a decreasing connection to nature by people of all ages.”

MDC has eight regions across the state and each region will be led by a regional administrator. All eight regional administrators report directly to the assistant deputy of resource management in Jefferson City to ensure regional operations also remain coordinated at the statewide level. Regional administrators will transition into their new role in December with the final organizational roadmap to be completed by July 1, 2020.