Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks
Encyclopedia
The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MFWP) is a government agency
in the executive
branch state of Montana
in the United States
with responsibility for protecting sustainable fish
, wildlife
, and state-owned park
resources in Montana for the purpose of providing recreational activities. The agency engages in law enforcement
activities to enforce laws and regulations regarding fish, wildlife, and state parks, and encourages safe recreational use of these resources (such as safety courses for boaters, hunters, snowmobilers, and others).
In 1885, the territorial legislature established the Montana territorial Fish and Game Commission. The state's first state game warden
was hired in 1889, the same year that Montana became a state. Under Montana state law, each county was also authorized to hire one game warden, but a lack of funds and interest led to no wardens being hired. By 1900, only four of Montana's then-24 counties had game wardens.
The Montana State Legislature established the state Fish and Game Board in 1895. Governor John E. Rickards
appointed the first Fish and Game Commissioners on March 4, 1895. The Fish and Game Board hired its first state game warden, R.A. Wagner, in July 1898. Hunting and fishing licenses were imposed on out-of-state residents in 1901. The funds from sale of licenses and fines imposed on violators partially funded the state's court system, and in its first year more than 300 justices of the peace
were supported by the law. The Fish and Game commissioners recommended the establishment of a Fish and Game Department, and the legislature created this agency on April 1, 1901. The game warden and his deputies were all authorized law enforcement officers. Fish and game districts were created and eight deputy game wardens authorized for each district. Hunting and fishing licenses for in-state residents were required in 1905.
The state reorganized its fish and wildlife management structure in 1913, creating the first state Fish and Game Commission. In 1921, the state legislature reorganized the Commission: A board of five Commissioners was established, with the power to create fish and game districts, open and close hunting seasons, and more.
The state's first game management area opened in 1926, and by 1936 the state had 46 areas (now called "game preserves") in operation. The first three preservation areas to be set aside were at Snow Creek (along the Missouri River
in northern Garfield County
), Pryor Mountain (now the Pryor Mountains Wild Horse Range
), and the Gallatin River
(in Gallatin County
). On September 2, 1937, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
signed into law the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act (commonly known as the Pittman-Robertson Act for its two key sponsors, Representative
Absalom Willis Robertson
[ D
-Va.
] and Senator
Key Pittman
[ D
-Nev.
] ). The law created a excise
tax on ammunition, archery equipment, handguns, and hunting firearms, and apportioned the revenue among state wildlife agencies on a matching funds
basis (with the provision that each state ban the diversion of hunting and fishing license revenue to other uses). Montana used these funds to purchase its first wildlife management area in 1938 (as of 2005 it had 84). The state used these funds to hire its first wildlife biologist in 1940. Congress passed the Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Act in 1950 (which was almost identical to the 1937 act, funding its activities through excise taxes on fishing gear and equipment), allowing the Montana Fish and Game Commission to hire fisheries biologists, establish its first fisheries management projects, and initiate the first studies of problems affecting fisheries (such as logging and dams).
In 1941, the state legislature gave the Fish and Game Commission the power to engage in rulemaking, and gave it additional power to open and close seasons, set bag limits, and create game preserves. That same year, the Fish and Game Commission established a program to collect data and conduct research on wildlife management so that a more rational wildlife management program might be established.
Montana adopted a new state constitution in 1972. Article IX, Section 1 of the new constitution provided for the protection and improvement of the environment. Subsection 3 of Section 1 declared that the state legislature "shall provide adequate remedies for the protection of the environmental life support system from degradation and provide adequate remedies to prevent unreasonable depletion and degradation of natural resources." On July 1, 1973, the state adopted model legislation known as the Nongame and Endangered Species Conservation Act (Montana Code Ann. 87-5-101-132), which required the state Fish and Game Commission to identify and protect threatened and endangered wildlife, conduct research on non-game
and endangered species, and acquire and manage habitat for their use.
The state legislature changed the name of the Montana Fish and Game Commission to the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Commission in 1991.
which is authorized to engage in rulemaking
for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, approves the purchase of land for use by the Department, and approves certain activities of the Department. There are five members of the Commission, all of whom must be citizens of the state and each one of whom represents one of the Department's five geographical regions (Northcentral, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, and Southwest). Members serve for four years. Members are appointed by the Governor, with three members appointed at the beginning of the Governor's term and two appointed two years after the Governor's term begins. Appointments are nonpartisan
, but at least one of the Commissioners must have experience in the breeding and management of domesticated livestock
.
The Commission is independent, but issues reports to and works closely with the Governor and the Director of the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
The Department has three programmatic divisions: Finance, Fish and Wildlife, and Parks. There are five administrative bureaus within the Fish and Wildlife division: Communication and Education, Enforcement, Fisheries, Strategic Planning and Data Services, and Wildlife. In the 1950s, the Department established seven administrative regions in the state through which these five bureaus implement their programs. Each administration region is led by a Regional Administrator, who reports to the Director. The Parks division has three bureaus: Business Operations, Capital and Recreation, and Field Operations. The Finance division has four bureaus, which includes the Licensing bureau.
Each division head is nominated by the Governor and confirmed by the Montana Senate.
In 2009, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks had annual revenues of $87,080,733. The state legislature appropriated $1,895,500 (2.2 percent of all revenues), with other state revenues (largely from dedicated taxes and fees) amounting to $10,563,367 (12.1 percent of all revenues). Federal funds account for $17,457,006 in 2009 revenues (20.0 of all revenues), while hunting and fishing licenses accounted for $57,164,860, or 65.7 percent of the Department's 2009 revenues.
The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks had total expenditures of $87,080,733 in 2009, of which $13,040,700 were capital expenditures
and $74,040,033 were operational expenditures
. When expenditures are broken down by divisional costs rather than capital vs. operating budget, the Fish and Wildlife Division spent $57,880,940 (66.5 percent of all expenditures), the Parks Division spent $15,104,493 (17.3 of all expenditures), and the Management and Finance Division spent $14,095,300 (or 16.2 percent of all expenditures) in 2009. The operational budget for the Parks Division was about $8 million in 2008, and came from more than 18 different sources.
The department had 693 full-time equivalent
employees in May 2009, of which 197 were seasonal or temporary. These include 74 field game wardens, six uniformed investigators, and three covert investigators in addition to a number of game sergeants and game captains. In April 2010, Governor Brian Schweitzer
asked state agencies for a 4 percent across-the-board reduction in personnel. However, the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks was exempt from the personnel reductions since most of its revenues came from hunting and fishing licenses.
The Department acknowledged in March 2009 that it had trouble retaining
its game wardens. Pay for an entry-level game warden was $16.72 per hour, one of the lowest in the nation and much lower than a number of private and public security and law enforcement-related positions in the state. Half the state's game wardens had less than five years of experience.
The Fish, Wildlife and Parks department underwent a significant restructuring in the spring of 2009. Joe Maurier, a long-time friend of Governor Schweitzer's, was hired to lead the department's Parks Division in 2006 allegedly after Schweitzer asked that he be hired (an allegation the governor denied). In November 2008, Schweitzer dismissed the long-time head of the MFWP and replaced him with Maurier. Maurier reassigned the department's Deputy Director, Chris Smith, to work on special projects and hired Art Noonan (a state legislator from Butte
with no college degree and no hunting or fishing experience) as the new Deputy Director. Under Governor Schweitzer's instructions, Maurier significantly consolidated the department's divisions. Prior to 2009, the department had separate divisions for communication and education, enforcement, fisheries, and wildlife. It had no strategic planning unit; rather, each division had its own strategic planning staff. The restructuring created the single Fish and Wildlife Division with five administrative bureaus (Communication and Education, Enforcement, Fisheries, Strategic Planning and Data Services, and Wildlife) as well as consolidated Finance and Parks divisions. Instead of reporting to a number of divisions, the regional administrators now reported to the head of the Fish and Wildlife Division. The salary for the administrator of Fish and Wildlife was increased to $82,524 a year. David Risley, administrator of the wildlife management and research division of the Division of Wildlife in the Ohio Department of Natural Resources
, was hired to lead the Fish and Wildlife Division. Chas Van Genderen was promoted from Assistant Parks Administrator to Administrator in April 2009.
Government agency
A government or state agency is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, such as an intelligence agency. There is a notable variety of agency types...
in the executive
Executive (government)
Executive branch of Government is the part of government that has sole authority and responsibility for the daily administration of the state bureaucracy. The division of power into separate branches of government is central to the idea of the separation of powers.In many countries, the term...
branch state of Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with responsibility for protecting sustainable fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
, wildlife
Wildlife
Wildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals and other organisms. Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative....
, and state-owned park
Park
A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...
resources in Montana for the purpose of providing recreational activities. The agency engages in law enforcement
Law enforcement agency
In North American English, a law enforcement agency is a government agency responsible for the enforcement of the laws.Outside North America, such organizations are called police services. In North America, some of these services are called police while others have other names In North American...
activities to enforce laws and regulations regarding fish, wildlife, and state parks, and encourages safe recreational use of these resources (such as safety courses for boaters, hunters, snowmobilers, and others).
History
The Montana Territorial Legislature enacted the first fish or wildlife law (it limited fishing methods to rods and lines) in 1854. The first game bird hunting laws were passed in 1869, and hunting seasons for antelope, buffalo, bighorn sheep, deer, elk, moose, mountain goats, and rabbits set in 1872. Fur trapping and bird hunting seasons followed in 1876.In 1885, the territorial legislature established the Montana territorial Fish and Game Commission. The state's first state game warden
Game warden
A game warden is an employee who has the role of protecting wildlife. Game wardens may also be referred to as conservation officers or wildlife officers...
was hired in 1889, the same year that Montana became a state. Under Montana state law, each county was also authorized to hire one game warden, but a lack of funds and interest led to no wardens being hired. By 1900, only four of Montana's then-24 counties had game wardens.
The Montana State Legislature established the state Fish and Game Board in 1895. Governor John E. Rickards
John E. Rickards
John Ezra Rickards was a Montana legislator and politician.Rickards was a businessman in Butte, Montana. He was a member of the territorial legislature from 1888-89, and was a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1889...
appointed the first Fish and Game Commissioners on March 4, 1895. The Fish and Game Board hired its first state game warden, R.A. Wagner, in July 1898. Hunting and fishing licenses were imposed on out-of-state residents in 1901. The funds from sale of licenses and fines imposed on violators partially funded the state's court system, and in its first year more than 300 justices of the peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
were supported by the law. The Fish and Game commissioners recommended the establishment of a Fish and Game Department, and the legislature created this agency on April 1, 1901. The game warden and his deputies were all authorized law enforcement officers. Fish and game districts were created and eight deputy game wardens authorized for each district. Hunting and fishing licenses for in-state residents were required in 1905.
The state reorganized its fish and wildlife management structure in 1913, creating the first state Fish and Game Commission. In 1921, the state legislature reorganized the Commission: A board of five Commissioners was established, with the power to create fish and game districts, open and close hunting seasons, and more.
The state's first game management area opened in 1926, and by 1936 the state had 46 areas (now called "game preserves") in operation. The first three preservation areas to be set aside were at Snow Creek (along the Missouri River
Missouri River
The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...
in northern Garfield County
Garfield County, Montana
-Politics:Garfield County is a solidly Republican county. It might be the most Republican county in Montana and one of the most Republican in the nation....
), Pryor Mountain (now the Pryor Mountains Wild Horse Range
Pryor Mountains Wild Horse Range
The Pryor Mountains Wild Horse Range is a refuge for a historically signifcant herd of free-roaming Mustangs, feral horses colloquially called "wild horses", located in the Pryor Mountains of Montana and Wyoming in the United States. The range has an area of and was established in 1968 along the...
), and the Gallatin River
Gallatin River
The Gallatin River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 120 mi , in the U.S. states of Wyoming and Montana...
(in Gallatin County
Gallatin County, Montana
-National protected areas:* Gallatin National Forest * Yellowstone National Park -Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 67,831 people, 26,323 households, and 16,188 families residing in the county. The population density was 26 people per square mile . There were 29,489 housing units...
). On September 2, 1937, President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
signed into law the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act (commonly known as the Pittman-Robertson Act for its two key sponsors, Representative
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
Absalom Willis Robertson
Absalom Willis Robertson
Absalom Willis Robertson was an American lawyer and Democratic Party politician from Lexington, Virginia. Also known as A. Willis Robertson, he represented Virginia in both the U.S...
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
-Va.
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Key Pittman
Key Pittman
Key Denson Pittman was a United States Senator from Nevada. He was a Democrat.Pittman was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1872 and was educated by private tutors and at the Southwestern Presbyterian University in Clarksville, Tennessee. He studied law, then later became a lawyer...
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
-Nev.
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
Excise
Excise tax in the United States is a indirect tax on listed items. Excise taxes can be and are made by federal, state and local governments and are far from uniform throughout the United States...
tax on ammunition, archery equipment, handguns, and hunting firearms, and apportioned the revenue among state wildlife agencies on a matching funds
Matching funds
Matching funds, a term used to describe the requirement or condition that a generally minimal amount of money or services-in-kind originate from the beneficiaries of financial amounts, usually for a purpose of charitable or public good.-Charitable causes:...
basis (with the provision that each state ban the diversion of hunting and fishing license revenue to other uses). Montana used these funds to purchase its first wildlife management area in 1938 (as of 2005 it had 84). The state used these funds to hire its first wildlife biologist in 1940. Congress passed the Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Act in 1950 (which was almost identical to the 1937 act, funding its activities through excise taxes on fishing gear and equipment), allowing the Montana Fish and Game Commission to hire fisheries biologists, establish its first fisheries management projects, and initiate the first studies of problems affecting fisheries (such as logging and dams).
In 1941, the state legislature gave the Fish and Game Commission the power to engage in rulemaking, and gave it additional power to open and close seasons, set bag limits, and create game preserves. That same year, the Fish and Game Commission established a program to collect data and conduct research on wildlife management so that a more rational wildlife management program might be established.
Montana adopted a new state constitution in 1972. Article IX, Section 1 of the new constitution provided for the protection and improvement of the environment. Subsection 3 of Section 1 declared that the state legislature "shall provide adequate remedies for the protection of the environmental life support system from degradation and provide adequate remedies to prevent unreasonable depletion and degradation of natural resources." On July 1, 1973, the state adopted model legislation known as the Nongame and Endangered Species Conservation Act (Montana Code Ann. 87-5-101-132), which required the state Fish and Game Commission to identify and protect threatened and endangered wildlife, conduct research on non-game
Game (food)
Game is any animal hunted for food or not normally domesticated. Game animals are also hunted for sport.The type and range of animals hunted for food varies in different parts of the world. This will be influenced by climate, animal diversity, local taste and locally accepted view about what can or...
and endangered species, and acquire and manage habitat for their use.
The state legislature changed the name of the Montana Fish and Game Commission to the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Commission in 1991.
Commission
The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission is a quasi-judicial bodyQuasi-judicial body
A quasi-judicial body is an individual or organization which has powers resembling those of a court of law or judge and is able to remedy a situation or impose legal penalties on a person or organization.-Powers:...
which is authorized to engage in rulemaking
Rulemaking
In administrative law, rulemaking refers to the process that executive and independent agencies use to create, or promulgate, regulations. In general, legislatures first set broad policy mandates by passing statutes, then agencies create more detailed regulations through rulemaking.By bringing...
for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, approves the purchase of land for use by the Department, and approves certain activities of the Department. There are five members of the Commission, all of whom must be citizens of the state and each one of whom represents one of the Department's five geographical regions (Northcentral, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, and Southwest). Members serve for four years. Members are appointed by the Governor, with three members appointed at the beginning of the Governor's term and two appointed two years after the Governor's term begins. Appointments are nonpartisan
Nonpartisan
In political science, nonpartisan denotes an election, event, organization or person in which there is no formally declared association with a political party affiliation....
, but at least one of the Commissioners must have experience in the breeding and management of domesticated livestock
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
.
The Commission is independent, but issues reports to and works closely with the Governor and the Director of the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
Department
The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks is led by a Director, who reports directly to the Governor of the State of Montana. The Department has four managerial offices: Human Resources, Lands/Outreach, Legal, and Deputy Director. The Technology Services Bureau is another managerial office, but reports directly to the Deputy Director.The Department has three programmatic divisions: Finance, Fish and Wildlife, and Parks. There are five administrative bureaus within the Fish and Wildlife division: Communication and Education, Enforcement, Fisheries, Strategic Planning and Data Services, and Wildlife. In the 1950s, the Department established seven administrative regions in the state through which these five bureaus implement their programs. Each administration region is led by a Regional Administrator, who reports to the Director. The Parks division has three bureaus: Business Operations, Capital and Recreation, and Field Operations. The Finance division has four bureaus, which includes the Licensing bureau.
Each division head is nominated by the Governor and confirmed by the Montana Senate.
Budget and personnel
The State of Montana has a biannual budget cycle, with state agencies on a two-year budget cycle. The state's constitution requires a balanced budget.In 2009, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks had annual revenues of $87,080,733. The state legislature appropriated $1,895,500 (2.2 percent of all revenues), with other state revenues (largely from dedicated taxes and fees) amounting to $10,563,367 (12.1 percent of all revenues). Federal funds account for $17,457,006 in 2009 revenues (20.0 of all revenues), while hunting and fishing licenses accounted for $57,164,860, or 65.7 percent of the Department's 2009 revenues.
The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks had total expenditures of $87,080,733 in 2009, of which $13,040,700 were capital expenditures
Capital budgeting
Capital budgeting is the planning process used to determine whether an organization's long term investments such as new machinery, replacement machinery, new plants, new products, and research development projects are worth pursuing...
and $74,040,033 were operational expenditures
Operating budget
An operating budget is the annual budget of an activity stated in terms of Budget Classification Code, functional/subfunctional categories and cost accounts. It contains estimates of the total value of resources required for the performance of the operation including reimbursable work or services...
. When expenditures are broken down by divisional costs rather than capital vs. operating budget, the Fish and Wildlife Division spent $57,880,940 (66.5 percent of all expenditures), the Parks Division spent $15,104,493 (17.3 of all expenditures), and the Management and Finance Division spent $14,095,300 (or 16.2 percent of all expenditures) in 2009. The operational budget for the Parks Division was about $8 million in 2008, and came from more than 18 different sources.
The department had 693 full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent , is a unit to measure employed persons or students in a way that makes them comparable although they may work or study a different number of hours per week. FTE is often used to measure a worker's involvement in a project, or to track cost reductions in an organization...
employees in May 2009, of which 197 were seasonal or temporary. These include 74 field game wardens, six uniformed investigators, and three covert investigators in addition to a number of game sergeants and game captains. In April 2010, Governor Brian Schweitzer
Brian Schweitzer
Brian David Schweitzer is an American politician from the U.S. state of Montana. Schweitzer is its 23rd and current governor, serving since January 2005. Schweitzer currently has one of the highest approval ratings among governors in the nation, with polls regularly showing a rating of above 60...
asked state agencies for a 4 percent across-the-board reduction in personnel. However, the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks was exempt from the personnel reductions since most of its revenues came from hunting and fishing licenses.
Operations
The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks launched a new Web page for the state parks system in April 2008 to help promote tourism.The Department acknowledged in March 2009 that it had trouble retaining
Turnover (employment)
In a human resources context, turnover or staff turnover or labour turnover is the rate at which an employer gains and loses employees. Simple ways to describe it are "how long employees tend to stay" or "the rate of traffic through the revolving door." Turnover is measured for individual companies...
its game wardens. Pay for an entry-level game warden was $16.72 per hour, one of the lowest in the nation and much lower than a number of private and public security and law enforcement-related positions in the state. Half the state's game wardens had less than five years of experience.
The Fish, Wildlife and Parks department underwent a significant restructuring in the spring of 2009. Joe Maurier, a long-time friend of Governor Schweitzer's, was hired to lead the department's Parks Division in 2006 allegedly after Schweitzer asked that he be hired (an allegation the governor denied). In November 2008, Schweitzer dismissed the long-time head of the MFWP and replaced him with Maurier. Maurier reassigned the department's Deputy Director, Chris Smith, to work on special projects and hired Art Noonan (a state legislator from Butte
Butte, Montana
Butte is a city in Montana and the county seat of Silver Bow County, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow. As of the 2010 census, Butte's population was 34,200...
with no college degree and no hunting or fishing experience) as the new Deputy Director. Under Governor Schweitzer's instructions, Maurier significantly consolidated the department's divisions. Prior to 2009, the department had separate divisions for communication and education, enforcement, fisheries, and wildlife. It had no strategic planning unit; rather, each division had its own strategic planning staff. The restructuring created the single Fish and Wildlife Division with five administrative bureaus (Communication and Education, Enforcement, Fisheries, Strategic Planning and Data Services, and Wildlife) as well as consolidated Finance and Parks divisions. Instead of reporting to a number of divisions, the regional administrators now reported to the head of the Fish and Wildlife Division. The salary for the administrator of Fish and Wildlife was increased to $82,524 a year. David Risley, administrator of the wildlife management and research division of the Division of Wildlife in the Ohio Department of Natural Resources
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources was created in 1949 by the Ohio Legislature. It is a government agency in the U.S. state of Ohio charged with maintaining natural resources such as state parks, public lands, state forests, state waterways, and recreation areas.Divisions of ODNR...
, was hired to lead the Fish and Wildlife Division. Chas Van Genderen was promoted from Assistant Parks Administrator to Administrator in April 2009.