Out-going
Ohio Division of Wildlife chief Mike Miller has gone on the defensive
against claims that the agency is attempting to dissolve its vital
Lake Erie Law Enforcement Unit.
This
perceived threat, critics say, would come about through increasing
reliance on elements of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’
Parks and Watercraft Division law enforcement wing. The assertion
stems from charges that the Natural Resources Department – and by
extension, the Wildlife Division – has been over-working the Lake
Erie law section, and also failing to adequately supply the necessary
manpower to watch over both commercial and recreational fishing on
Ohio’s share of Lake Erie, the state’s 200-plus miles of
shoreline, as well looking out for the rest of Ohio’s north coast
natural resources.
Most
recently, alarmists have sounded that Miller has met with officials
attached to the Lake Erie Charter Boat Association in an effort to
solicit support for a major overhaul of the Wildlife Division’s
Lake Erie law enforcement unit.
Miller
– who almost certainly will not be asked to stick around come
January regardless of who becomes Ohio’s next governor - denies
that he has told the LECBA that new Lake Erie law enforcement
protocols are in the works; only that a free exchange of ideas
between the state and the president of the group was recently
conducted.
That
take was second by the LECBA’s president, Paul Pacholoski. The
LECBA represents many Lake Erie Western Basin charter captains,
“We
are not going to merge with anyone nor begin replacing any Wildlife
Division staff with officers from Parks and Watercraft,” Miller
said. “It hasn’t happened. It’s not happening. It’s not going
to happen.”
Miller
did say that the Lake Erie Law Enforcement Unit is now – at least
temporarily – being supervised from the agency’s Wildlife
District Two (Northwest Ohio) Office in Findlay. That is because
Wildlife Division law enforcement official Jeff Collingwood had
requested to return to the District Two office where can supervise
both that segment’s law enforcement section along with the Lake
Erie section, Miller said.
“It’s
an experiment that’s been discussed before to see if it can work in
the future, and it has been working for the past six months,”
Miller said.
Similarly,
Miller says, the current staff of six Wildlife Division law
enforcement officers will continue to use as their bases of operation
both the agency’s offices in Sandusky as well as Fairport Harbor.
“Lake
Erie has always been a priority for us,” Miller said continuing,
during a recent conversation with “Ohio Outdoor News,” noting too
that the agency has filled three Lake Erie fisheries biologists
vacancies in recent times.
“We’ve
often pulled officers from other parts of the state to work
enforcement projects like the walleye runs on the Maumee River or
when the fishing is really going strong on Erie and during the
ice-fishing season,” Miller said also.
As
for talk that the Wildlife Division will increasingly rely on Parks
and Watercraft Division lae enforcement officers instead of its own
crew of commissioned personnel, Miller said it only makes sense to
partner together and utilize each others physical assets in order to
comb the lake’s vast open waters.
“That’s
a benefit for both of us,” he said.
Pacholski
said he met with Miller recently to go over Lake Erie’s
international quota system along with possible future changes to
walleye limits, the up-coming changes to non-resident Ohio fishing
license fees, as well as increasing fish and habitat studies in the
Maumee River and its embayment.
“As
always, we at LECBA strongly support the Sandusky office for both
its enforcement and fishery management program,” Pacholoski told
“Ohio Outdoor News” also.
“(The)
LECBA is always glad to
partner with the Ohio DNR to protect the Lake Erie fishery.”
Pacholoski
said too that “different ideas were thrown out by both myself and
the Chief, none of which involved drastically altering the agencies
law enforcement unit or combining agencies.”
“With
our skyrocketing population of walleyes, we feel their protection
for the future is extremely important. A strong enforcement
presence for both the commercial and sportfishing industry in Ohio
has always been one of our issues,” Pacholoski said. “I must
reiterate, these were just ideas.”
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net
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