Anyone here that knows me at all, knows that I have a high regard for the professionals of IDNR. And while I currently work in a county agency, I started my career with IDNR way back in 1972. I worked then as a biologist assistant out of the North Fork shop on Monroe Reservoir. That means I have been in this business now for 36 years. There is, I’m sad to say, some truth in many comments about a lack of initiative by the state over the last 30-40 years. But that comes from the political sector, not from to professional staff.

When I started there, IDNR was full of people that loved the outdoors and cherished each day they had an opportunity to mix their vocations and their avocations. Everyone in the central office hunted, fished and enjoyed the products of their labors along with the public. Today too much is run by political appointees, lawyers and bean counters. The momentum of the department is too often captured by the environmental politics of the moment. Before we blame that on the current Governor, I have watched the problem grow over the years under governors of both parties. I have often said that the if a young person is planning college today for a career in resource management, the most important science class to take is political science. A degree in law with a minor in political science would put one in a good position to do well in the modern system.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking the field people are part of that problem. They mostly hate it as much as the rest of us do. The biologists, ICO’s, and property managers are still there because they love the outdoors. But if you stroll up the food chain past the green/tan uniforms to the place where neckties grow, you will begin to encounter the professional bureaucrat. They feed on the back-pats and kudos from the political sector and tend to steer the organization more towards being an environmental protection unit rather than a natural resource conservation unit; because that is the politics of the day.

Is there a solution? Can it be turned around before it is too late? If I knew the answer to that I’d be rich by now.

Just my two cents.