The state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources recently named Michael S. Winters as manager of the 5,900-acre Bald Eagle State Park in Centre County.
He is a former manager of the Little Pine State Park complex in Lycoming and Clinton counties.
"After overseeing four state parks in the heart of the Pennsylvania Wilds, Michael Winters brings a solid administrative background to his latest state park assignment," said DCNR Secretary Richard Allan. "His enthusiasm and public relations skills will only improve the visitor experience at Bald Eagle, where the new Nature Inn has become an increasingly popular focal point of the park."
Opened in September 2010, the 16-room inn overlooking the lake focuses on outdoor recreation and stewardship, making maximum use of green-building technologies, while serving as a premier interpretive facility for bird watching.
The Nature Inn is the first facility of its type in Pennsylvania's nationally recognized state park system, offering visitors modern accommodations and an up-close experience with nature.
"I am excited and looking forward to the new challenges that managing this large state park will bring," Winters said. "I also am looking forward to collaborating with the Nature Inn's innkeeper and the Bureau of State Parks' regional and central offices to promote our very unique Nature Inn facility."
Winters will oversee a state park where the Foster Joseph Sayers Reservoir is managed for flood control by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The waterway affords visiting anglers an excellent warm-water fishery and gives boaters access to a 1,730-acre lake where unlimited horsepower motors are permitted and 360 mooring slips are provided.
Winters succeeds John E. Ferrara, who was named assistant regional parks manager for State Parks Region 1, based in Emporium, Cameron County.
Winters began his Bureau of State Parks career in 1994 as a ranger at Little Pine and Ole Bull state parks in the northcentral part of the state. Most recently, he oversaw operations at the state park complex headquartered at Little Pine State Park, Lycoming County, and including Upper Pine Bottom, also in Lycoming County; and Hyner View and Hyner Run state parks, both in Clinton County.
A seven-year veteran of service with the U.S. Marine Corps, Winters was discharged in June 1990 as a sergeant after last serving as an instructor with the USMC.
Winters, 48, a native of Williamsport, is married and the father of three grown children, one of whom will be married in June in Little Pine State Park.
