Lee Albright left Peoria 24 years ago seeking adventure in the great outdoors.
The Peoria native is now back in Peoria, and he is still in love with the outdoors.
That love is what brought him back home to serve as the new manager for the Illinois River National Wildlife and Fish Refuges for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Good to be home
The station is headquartered in Havana, but home is Peoria, where he is staying with his mother. 
“Illinois is my childhood home and I’m very gratified to be back here in this capacity,” Albright, 48, said.
“It was a long and winding path back home, but I’m looking forward to using all the experience I gained along the way to help improve fish and wildlife habitat here along the Illinois River.”
Albright said he has quite a job ahead of him because his assignment includes three national wildlife refuges — Chautauqua, Meredosia, and Emiquon — which together cover more than 12,000 acres and extend 125 miles along the Illinois River from its northern most to southern most point.
But, Albright said, he feels up to the task. Peoria is, he said, where he developed his love of the outdoors.
“My dad and some of his friends had a sportsmen’s club near Victoria, Il. That was a place, since my earliest recollections we spent weekends,” Albright said.
“I got to do a lot of hunting and fishing there.”
What developed, Albright said, was a deep fascination with migratory birds.
That fascination led him all over the nation. But, he fought to get back to Illinois when the opportunity arose.
“There was competition for this job. I was thrilled to enter the competition,” he said.
“The competition is pretty stiff. It was very good news when I learned I won the job.”

Getting around
After leaving Peoria, Albright held volunteer and seasonal positions for The Nature Conservancy and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in North Dakota.
He said during the winter, when seasonal positions were not available in North Dakota, he worked for the National Marine Fisheries Service as a government observer on commercial fishing vessels. He worked on ships based out of Dutch Harbor, Alaska and Panama.
Albright said his first permanent position with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was at the Kulm Wetland Management District in North Dakota.
Over the following 20 years he held positions at Valley City, Arrowwood, and J. Clark Salyer Wetland Management Districts in North Dakota.
He transferred to Browns Park National Wildlife Refuge in Colorado, and finally to the Mid-Columbia River National Wildlife Refuge Complex in Washington.

Challenges
It took no time at all after arriving home in early March for Albright to learn of the challenges that await him.
“One of the big challenges we’re facing is maintaining our refuges with all the flooding we have four or five times a year,” Albright said.
“The flooding causes damage to our infrastructure.”
The other challenge is walking into a new environment.
“I’m realizing a lot of the challenges I will face have yet to present themselves,” he said.
But, that uncertainty is also making the job interesting, Albright said. And, he said, making the refuges come alive for Illinoisans will be a challenge he welcomes, Albright said.
“There’s lots of activities here people can be involved in. We have a nature trail and bird-watching. We have bald eagles nesting here,” Albright said.
“We have lots of land set aside for wildlife. I want to make this place come alive for people. It’s all extremely satisfying. I’m getting to work in a new environment. In this job you get to see results.”