Brent Widener, who says he grew up “always outdoors,” told his family he was going to college to study hunting and fishing and joked while there he’d play football for the Georgia Bulldogs. Turns out his first love took precedence.
“My sophomore year in high school I stopped playing sports because I decided I wanted to be in the woods all the time,” Widener said, adding the degree in wildlife biology he earned from the University of Georgia propelled him into a career in natural resources.
“I spent the first 10 to 15 years of my career in the field,” he said. “But increasingly I’ve worked my way into an office.”
As the chief of the Environmental Management Division at U.S. Army Garrison Fort Moore in Georgia, his passion for the woods and natural resources and ecosystems still drives his work, as does his commitment to ensuring the best possible training environment for soldiers.
“As you move up, you let go; that’s a hard thing to do. It’s important to empower others -- you can’t do everything on your own and there are a lot of great people here,” he said. “For the first 10 years or so, I was out in the field. Now, sometimes I get to the point where I yearn to be back in those places I was before, but I’ve had to find greater satisfaction knowing I am doing my best to empower others to do the things I am most passionate about.”
Widener began his work at Fort Moore in 2008, after several years in the private sector doing mostly field work, and now oversees the Environmental Management Division, a job he started in September 2022.
“We’re responsible for cultural resources, the full suite of environmental requirements and compliance. We manage and support hunting, fishing, camping and recreation opportunities for our soldiers and their families and the community, all the way up to the management and disposal of hazardous wastes, clean water, clean air,” he said. “I am by no means an expert in many of those fields, but we have people on our staff [who] do have that expertise and are part of a great team.”
And he and his team always keep their focus on finding the right balance to their work and remembering why they do it.
“I never served but had family members who did. I first got here in 2008. In the first three to five years, I gained an even greater appreciation for the commitment of the soldiers and their families,” he said.
“To be able to provide our soldiers and their families with recreational opportunities, and to also create the right conditions for our soldiers to be trained for what may come, is rewarding. It brings things full circle not only what you wanted to do for your career, and live your life, but also to support those who are sacrificing so much – there’s some personal satisfaction in that, no question.”
Another area of success Widener points to is the strength of the ongoing relationships with the federally recognized Indian tribes the team works with regularly.
“One fundamental piece is effective listening, some emotional intelligence, and truly sitting there and listening to hear, not listening to respond,” he said. “Our team has done a really effective job building relationships with our tribal partners. I would suggest that in our world you’re not going to be highly effective or highly successful, if you’re not collaborating with others. You’re going to make mistakes. You need to be able to hear and accept constructive feedback.”
Widener also credited the longevity of many of the environmental team members, and their focus on the work, for their efficiency and effectiveness.
“We’ve got a really good strong record of doing things the right way for the right reasons,” he said.
One example is the ongoing and successful work at Fort Moore conserving the red cockaded woodpecker, a species that has made a remarkable recovery thanks in part to habitat restoration and stewardship at Fort Moore and military installations across the region.
“There’s been incredible work, much of it pre-dating my time here, to recover this species – it has taken a decades long effort by dozens, if not hundreds, of folks,” he said.
Widener said the compliance side of the Environmental Division has experienced team members who do a great job identifying potential problems and helping the installation avoid them.
“Institutional knowledge and long-term relationships are critical,” he said. “There’s a lot to be said for having suffered through it yourself. Sometimes that’s really the only way you can learn it.”
Widener said climate changes, as well as ongoing global conflicts, will present challenges for his team in meeting their mission and ensuring both a healthy ecosystem and the best possible soldier training but he is confident they will step up to these.
“It really takes everybody, doing their dead level best, even in sometimes stressful environments, to succeed. We’ve built a strong, resilient ecosystem [and] we manage it holistically,” Widener said. “Working with our teammates across the installation, with our neighboring communities, and with our other partners, we will be prepared.”
“The point is that it really is a team effort. There are so many things going on as we work to modernize the Army and the weapons systems. We need to make sure that we do all we can to help prepare Soldiers for whatever comes next.”
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