Dan Beard has announced his resignation as director of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. He has no announced job plans. Under Beard's two-year tenure, the Bureau's staff was reduced by 20 percent, its budget cut by over $ 100 million, and its mission redefined from water resource development to water resource management. Beard is the fifth top Interior official to resign in recent months. Along with the departure of Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Betsy Rieke, Beard's loss leaves a void in Interior Secretary Babbitt's wate r policy ranks. Informed sources report that Beard will be replaced by Eluid Martinez, who resigned last December as New Mexico's Acting State Engineer. Rieke, who left in June to take over the Natural Resources Law Center at the U niversity of Colorado, has been replaced on an acting basis by Patricia Beneke, Interior's Associate Solicitor for Energy and Resources.

Sid Wilson, General Manager of the Central Arizona Project, and Kim W. MacEachern, Director of the Water Quality Division at Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, have joined the < STRONG>Water Resources Research Center's External Advisory Committee. MacEachern replaces Brian Munson on the Committee; the CAP was not previously represented. The External Advisory Committee provides advice and guidance on WR RC programs and publications, and ranks pre-proposals for federal 104(b) grants.

Duncan Patten has retired from the Center for Environmental Studies at Arizona State University. He and his wife Eva plan to spend more time at their ranch in Montana. Both Pattens have been deeply involved in Arizona w ater issues, particularly issues involving riparian habitat. Duncan participated in studies of the effect of dam releases on the ecology of the Grand Canyon. He is past-president of the Ecological Society of America, and was instrumental in forming the Arizona Riparian Council. Eva Patten is a former employee of the Nature Conservancy. She serves on the Groundwater Users Advisory Committee, Arizona Department of Water Resources, and recently was honored by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality for her work to pro tect Arizona's environment.

Frank Waters died June 3 at the age of 92. Waters was a novelist and chronicler of the Southwest, a role that lead him to write occasionally about Western water topics. His history of the Colorado River, The Colorado, was published in 1 946 as the 30th volume in a "Rivers of America Project" for the Work Progress Administration (WPA). Waters describes the river in almost mystical terms, writing that the Colorado River "belongs only to the ancient, eternal earth. As no other, it is sava ge and unpredictable of mood, peculiarly American in character." Waters also wrote a 1942 novel, The Man Who Killed the Deer, a book that helped persuade federal authorities to return to the Pueblo Indians 48,000 acres of Blue Lake country.

Denise Meridith has been named director of the Bureau of Land Management's Arizona operations. As such, she is responsible for operations on 14.2 million acres of public lands and 17.5 million acres of mineral estate in the state. Merid ith comes to Arizona from a position of Deputy Director of BLM in Washington, D.C. She will be responsible for a $35 million budget and 560 BLM employees in Arizona operating out of 10 resource area offices.

Renee Eastman has joined the Salt River Project as manager of federal affairs. The Capital Hill veteran formerly represented Sun Company, an independent oil refiner. Eastman will head SRP's Washington, D.C. office, whic h monitors federal legislation and serves as liaison to federal executive branch agencies.