Doug Larsen, Director
Division of Wildlife Conservation
Doug Larsen was born and raised in Juneau, where he grew up hunting and fishing with friends and family. After high school, with the assistance of a scholarship from the Territorial Sportsman, Inc., Doug attended the University of Idaho, and completed a BS degree in wildlife management in 1979. During the summers of 1978 and 1979, Doug worked for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's Sport Fish Division, sampling benthic invertebrates on the Keta and Blossom rivers northeast of Ketchikan.
Long interested in airplanes and flying, Doug earned a pilot license in Washington in 1980. With single engine land and sea plane ratings, Doug returned to Alaska and enrolled in a graduate program through the University of Alaska, Fairbanks in the summer of 1980. He spent a year and a half studying the ecology of river otters on Prince of Wales Island in southern Southeast Alaska and earned an MS in wildlife management in 1983. From Fairbanks Doug traveled to Washington, DC, where he worked for six months as an intern with the National Wildlife Federation before returning to Alaska in the fall of 1984.
Doug went to work with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's Game Division (later renamed the Division of Wildlife Conservation) in the fall of 1984. He served three months as a wildlife management biologist in the Juneau area before transferring to Sitka, where he helped lead a research study of the reproductive potential of Sitka black-tailed deer. From Sitka, Doug transferred to Kotzebue where he spent five years as a wildlife management biologist for Game Management Unit 23. In Kotzebue Doug met and married his wife, Wendy. With their Piper Supercub, Wendy, Doug, and their eldest son enjoyed hunting, fishing, and exploring remote parts of northwest Alaska.
Doug and his family transferred to Ketchikan in 1990, where he served for eight years as the area wildlife management biologist for Game Management units 1A and 2. In 1998 Doug accepted the job of Assistant Director with the Division of Wildlife Conservation and relocated yet again with his family, which had increased to four with the birth of a second son in Ketchikan. In his capacity as Assistant Director, Doug was tasked with leading the division's strategic planning effort, interfacing in the Board of Game regulatory process, developing a fledgling nongame program, and overseeing the division's Marine Mammals and Hunter Information and Training programs.
In 2003 Doug relocated to the Douglas regional office where he served four years as the Regional Supervisor for wildlife programs in Southeast Alaska. Doug was appointed director of the Division of Wildlife Conservation in August 2007. Together with his Division Management Team, Doug's vision is for the division to be recognized as a professional organization known for competency, honesty, and fairness, and respected as a source of scientifically credible information on wildlife biology and management in Alaska, regardless of personal values and beliefs.
Along with their sons and two yellow labs, Doug and Wendy continue to enjoy outdoor activities, including hunting, fishing, camping, and boating.
