On a day when he wasn’t completely certain of his job status, Assistant Secretary of the Army John Paul Woodley Jr. had better things to do than to hang around the office. Instead, he spent Nov. 3, 2004 shuttling around the Triangle to receive a special tour of EEP operations in local watershed planning, stream restoration and high-quality preservation.

Woodley, who oversees the Civil Works section of the Army and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, arrived in Raleigh the morning of Nov. 3, the day after election day, at the invitation of NCDENR Secretary Bill Ross. When he landed at RDU airport at 9 a.m., Sen. John Kerry had yet to concede and the presidential election still hung in the balance.

As a civilian appointee of President Bush, Woodley’s long-term employment prospects depended upon the outcome of the presidential race. As the day progressed, Woodley received constant updates from Washington on election news from his military aide, Lt. Col. David Press. At a late-morning tour of an EEP stream restoration project in Durham, the news finally came down that the election was decided, and President Bush – literally Woodley’s boss – had held onto his job.

The visit began with a briefing for Woodley on EEP’s organization and management by EEP Director Bill Gilmore at EEP’s Parker-Lincoln office. Attendees for the opening session included Ross; Transportation Secretary Lyndo Tippett and Assistant Secretary Roger Sheats, and Dr. Greg Thorpe of NCDOT’s Project Development and Environmental Analysis branch; Col. Charles R. Alexander Jr., Ken Jolly and David Franklin of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; NCDENR Chief Deputy Secretary Dempsey Benton; Nina Szlosberg of the N.C. Board of Transportation; and Stan Meiburg and Linda Rimer of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

After the briefing, tour participants for the day boarded a van for the Ellerbe Creek urban stream-restoration project at Hillandale Golf Course in Durham. EEP Director of Operations Suzanne Klimek briefed the group en route on EEP watershed efforts in the Upper Neuse River basin. Upon arrival, Jason Guidry and Perry Sugg of EEP’s Implementation Section conducted a walking tour of the 6,000 linear-foot project.

The tour then embarked for Chapel Hill, where a working lunch was held at the N.C. Botanical Gardens’ Totten Center. Woodley received a briefing from EEP Planner Deborah Amaral on local watershed planning efforts in the Morgan and Little creeks watershed, on which EEP has partnered with local, regional, state and federal agencies, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and local conservation organizations.

EEP Preservation liaison Stephanie Horton also briefed Woodley on EEP preservation activities statewide, and Reid Wilson of the Conservation Trust for North Carolina described progress being achieved under the agreement between EEP, CTNC and the state land trusts to promote preservation. The final stop in the tour came at the new Haw Slopes State Natural Area, an EEP preservation site that is managed by the NCDENR Division of Parks and Recreation.