Wildlife Division-related loose ends

Some loose ends involving the Ohio Division of Wildlife that need wrapping up before the holiday weekend:

A pair of the state’s top wildlife biologists are moving up the chain of command.

Mike Tonkovich, the go-to point man on all things white-tail deer, will see his Ohio Division of Wildlife duties increases.

Under his new duty-expanding role, Tonkovich becomes the agency’s Deer Program Coordinator.

His more broad role will now include coordinating all aspects of the Wildlife Division’s deer management program, chairing a new deer management working group, develop a statewide deer management plan, establish new deer management units, and help establish deer population goals through a stakeholder-based process, as well as develop new strategies/programs to increase access for deer hunting on private lands in Ohio.

Also being promoted is wildlife biologist Dave Sherman who is being promoted to the position of the Wildlife Division’s wetland habitat coordinator.

This position has remained unfilled since 2009.

Sherman’s new duties will include working to implement the Wildlife Division’s wetland habitat tactical plan, provide technical guidance and planning assistance regarding wetland habitat projects to the agency’s five districts, coordinate statewide wetland habitat initiatives with Ducks Unlimited and other partners, serve as management board representative to the Upper Mississippi River/Great Lakes Joint Venture, and annually working with DU Canada to identify projects to spend Ohio wetland habitat stamp funds in Ontario.

Other Bits: In spite of rumors to the contrary, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Division is not revising the methods for scheduling, documentation, etc.” for managing the agency’s field officers.

Instead, says a Natural Resources Department spokeswoman, the agency will simply reinforce “the process of approval up the chain of command and ensuring that our supervisors take responsibility for ensuring absolute accuracy.”

Also, sportsmen may note that the same of the wildlife officers assigned to each county are not listed in the current hunting law digest.

The reason is simple, says the Natural Resources Department.

With the recently graduating class of officers along with several switches to county assignments, there was not enough time to print a version with the correct assignments.

“We will resume including the names next year,” said Natural Resources Department spokeswoman, Bethany McCorkle.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischkorn@News-Herald.com
Twitter: @Fieldkorn