Nature Center Director Investigated : Environment: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the city of Chula Vista are probing allegations that he shot animals there with a pellet gun.

The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the city of Chula Vista are investigating allegations that a nature center’s director shot and killed several animals on the center’s grounds and in the surrounding wildlife refuge.

The complaints, filed last Friday by two former employees of the Chula Vista Nature Interpretive Center, charge Steve Neudecker with using a high-powered pellet rifle to shoot and kill birds, squirrels and rabbits at the center, Assistant City Manager Gene Asmus said.

Asmus also confirmed that the complaints charge Neudecker with shooting the animals from his office window on at least one occasion.

“If there is any validity to the allegations made, they are very serious,” Asmus said. “But we only have the statements from the two former employees saying that they saw it. We don’t have anything beyond that.”

Asmus would not release the complaint or the names of the former employees.

Neudecker, who was out of the country and unavailable for comment, is director of the Bayfront Conservancy Trust, the city agency that operates the nature center on Gunpowder Point. He has run the center since its inception in 1987.

“It boggles the mind a little bit that even allegations like this would be made against a man of his caliber,” said Asmus, who described Neudecker as a “very environmentally sensitive individual.”

The 2-acre center is part of the 316-acre wildlife refuge, which falls under federal jurisdiction. The environmentally sensitive marshland is home to the California least tern and the clapper rail, birds on both the state and federal endangered species lists.

Chula Vista and the Fish and Wildlife Service are conducting separate investigations into the complaint.

Federal investigators would not comment on the progress of their probe, which began Tuesday.

Asmus said the city was informed of the allegations several weeks ago, but a formal complaint was not lodged until one of the former employees resigned last Friday. The other employee, who resigned in November, also stepped forward last Friday to issue a complaint.

“We’re talking to as many people as we can who could or might have any information regarding these allegations,” Asmus said of the investigation. “If these allegations are true, it shows a severe lack of judgment on Steve’s part.”

Asmus said investigators have yet to talk with Neudecker about the situation.

The Fish and Wildlife Service prohibits hunting or shooting on the refuge.

The nature center is managed and funded by the city, and all employees there are responsible directly to Asmus.