Mollie Beattie; Led Fish and Wildlife Service

Mollie Beattie, who as director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the last three years defended the Endangered Species Act against Republican members of Congress, has died at the age of 49.

Beattie, who died Thursday in Townshend of brain cancer, was the first woman to head the federal agency, which oversees wildlife refuges and endangered species. She resigned earlier this month because of ill health.

“As the first woman director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, Mollie presided over a sea change in the administration of the Endangered Species Act by improving the way government worked,” President Clinton said in a prepared statement. “She was the No. 1 advocate for our national wildlife refuges, forever fighting to keep the system strong and growing.”

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt noted: “She guided us with a steady hand through a difficult time when our fundamental mission to conserve wildlife for future generations was challenged.”

Among the species Beattie fought for, she told The Times in March, was California’s fabled jumping frog of Calaveras County chronicled by Mark Twain.

Beattie also battled to expand the federal refuge system at a time of budget cuts.

Some of the congressional leaders most opposed to her stands honored Beattie this week by introducing legislation that would name 8 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska after her.

Beattie held a master’s degree in forestry from the University of Vermont. She was Vermont commissioner of forests, parks and recreation from 1985 to 1989 and served as deputy secretary for Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources from 1989 to 1990.

She is survived by her husband, Rick Schwolsky, her mother and a sister.