Despite
controversy regarding its economic necessity, a move of the Ohio
Division of Wildlife’s Olentangy Research Station is still a “go.”
The
10-person wildlife management scientific unit is set to relocate to
the Wildlife Division’s building located within the massive Ohio
Department of Natural Resources’ Fountain Square complex in
Columbus. This arrangement is expected to be completed sometime in
mid-August, says a departmental spokesman.
Wildlife
scientists with the Olentangy unit in Delaware are tasked with
studying a wide range of species. Among them are the wild turkey,
white-tail deer, upland game and non-game, waterfowl, fur-bearer,
trumpeter swans, barn owls, and several others.
This
unit is not the same as that with the state Geological Survey
Division’s Horrace Collins Seismic Center which operates out of
Alum Creek State Park.
“The
move from Olentangy Station to Fountain Square will actually be a
cost-neutral move for Wildlife,” said Natural Resources spokesman
Matt Eiselstein.
“The
division incurred total costs of $47,890 in Fiscal Year 2018 to rent,
operate and maintain the Olentangy Station. The cost in Fiscal Year
2019 is estimated to be nearly identical.”
Thus
the move is intended to consolidate the Wildlife Division’s
wildlife management research and bring closer to administrators those
scientists who conduct such studies.
Yet
the move is not without critics, including Jim Abrams, a non-retired
Wildlife Division official.
Abrams
says the cost to rent the Delaware facility is only $25,000 annually
while the so-called “charge-back” fee (an accounting metric that
incorporates such things as expenses for operations) will actually
amount to $200,000 annually
This money will go to the parent Natural
Resources Department via debiting the Wildlife Division’s Wildlife
Fund, Abrams says.
“The
cost to purchase the existing facility in Delaware: $300,000,”
Abrams says as well.
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net
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