Even after nearly
seven years of holding down the fort the Ohio Department of Natural
Resources’ leadership still finds itself trying to both win over
pro-sportsmens organizations and justify its full-nelson hold on the
Ohio Division of Wildlife.
No where does this
mangled mindset appear more in evidence than via a video shot
September 8th during a portion of the Ohio State Trappers
Association’s annual convention, held at the Holmes County
Fairgrounds in Millersburg.
This hour-plus-long
video contains a testy (at times) exchange between members of the
Trappers Association and the Natural Resources Department’s
assistant director Gary Obermiller. It is posted on the Association’s
Facebook page.
Subsequent comments
made by Association attendees that are linked with the video also
suggest that Obermiller’s efforts have achieved little in the way
of bolstering confidence in the agency.
Which is in keeping
with the Natural Resources Department on-going inability to
acknowledge that it has an appearance problem trending toward
arrogance. This pomposity has defined the agency’s leadership from
the beginning and which still lurches itself onward with faux
swagger.
Indeed, the Natural
Resources Department continues to misread the breadth and depth of
distrust that many Ohio sportsmen/sportswomen hold for the agency.
In a statement
worthy of former Trump Administration press secretary Sean Spicer,
Ohio Department of Natural Resources spokesman Matt Eislestein added
to the administration’s string of back-handed insults of anyone who
dares to disagree with the agency.
When asked if Obermiller wanted to amend, change, expand or comment
on his statements and performance at the Trappers’ meet, Eiselstein
simply stated “I don’t
think anything needs added to Assistant Director Obermiller’s
appearance at the Ohio State Trappers Association event. He was
polite and respectful when answering questions even when interrupted
and badgered during his responses.”
Similar
vainglorious statements were belched a few months back when roughly
40 state and national conservation groups backed increases to Ohio
resident hunting and fishing license fees. Then the Natural Resources
Department’s leadership smugly snorted – in effect – as how the
non-profit groups should have undertaken a poll of their respective
memberships on whether the organizations should say yea or nay to any
increase in resident hunting and fishing license fees.
Even
forgetting for a moment the logistical improbability of mounting such
a step, the very reason people belong to these organizations is
because of their conservation activism. All of that is still being
lost on the Natural Resources Department’s directorship which seems
to believe that anything other than its opinion is fake news.
Clearly
this self-promoting strategy spilled over unto the state trapper’s
annual pow-wow stage; a group the Natural Resources Department now
seems bent on disenfranchising by saying its people badgered
Obermiller.
Obviously,
too, Natural Resources Department officials both misinterpreted the
response to Obermiller’s defense of the indefensible but have also
failed – and miserably so – to acknowledge any of the sod-busting
efforts on the part of previous administrations which broke ground on
various sportsmen initiatives.
In
one instance Obermiller attempted to singularly sing the praises
regarding his administration’s efforts at opening state parks,
natural areas and nature preserves to hunting. And while any and all
such effort must be applauded, neither Obermiller, nor Natural
Resources Department director James Zehringer - or even Wildlife
Division chief Mike Miller - can possibly file an original patent on
the idea. Their claim that the Wildlife Division has not taken
advantage of this access opportunity is simply bogus.
Then too
Obermiller’s statement that state parks have more public water for
anglers was a bit surprising and something that stretched reality to
the breaking point. After all, Ohio anglers have the Ohio River to
the south and something called Lake Erie to the north. Take away
those two minor fishing holes and it doesn’t take much of an
imagination to determine how low fishing license sales would dip.
As
the video shows, now-retired Wildlife Division District Three
(Northeast Ohio) supervisor Jeff Herrick pointedly and correctly
provided a short history regarding his former employer’s
decades-long work in achieving the opening of dozens of state parks
as well as natural areas to hunting and the agency’s dogged efforts
to share this effort with Ohio’s sportsmen.
And
while Herrick’s response was maybe an octave louder than a normal
tone of voice,
to say that his reaction to Obermiller’s politically
talented interpretation
of events was somehow
“badgering” easily
achieves audacity.
Herrick’s
responses – and there were multiples of them – also
demonstrated the on-going frustration felt
by many sportsmen
towards current Natural Resources Department’s policies and
perceived threats against the Wildlife Division. These perceptions
simply have not gone away because more than a
few
sportsmen/sportswomen
still do
not trust the Natural Resources Department’s leadership. Again,
seven years into the department’s leadership tenure.
They
remain
outraged as the Natural Resources Department has utilized the
Wildlife Division the way a baseball franchise mines its farm club
system;
robbing the latter of dedicated and experienced employees. A
move that included removing
the Wildlife Division’s
head of law enforcement
for the
do-it-or-be-dismissed job of
babysitting
the Natural Resources
Department’s
communications
room.
And when Obermiller
tried to say that under the Natural Resources bold leadership the
state parks system has achieved fiscal solvency it was candidly
pointed out to him that the pilfering of the former Ohio Division of
Watercraft with its fiscally solid Waterways Safety Fund, and then
shuffling them into the Parks Division, certainly didn’t hurt
Parks’ bottom line.
Obermiller wasn’t
all wrong nor all bad, however. He was spot on in saying that the
multitude of so-called wildlife production areas owned by the
Wildlife Division deserve better play. Indeed, these highly obscure
parcels of often superb wildlife habitat are decades old but are
minimally known by Ohio’s hunters. In this regard the Natural
Resources Department earns top marks for wanting to see the Wildlife
Division do much more in promoting them.
And credit
Obermiller for noting that the Wildlife Division has for too long
been viewed as the pretty one of the Natural Resources Department’s
family at the expense of its lesser siblings. Sure, some of that
feeling is nothing more than jealousy but there is more than an
element of truth to the long-held belief.
Problem was,
Obermiller had few of these positives; his presentation often citing
items of dubious accuracy. His statements on Zehringer’s Natural
Resources ad hoc citizens committee make it seems like it is
comprised of average joes plucked from the street. The members are
anything but, and a going over the list shows more friends of the
agency’s leadership than foes; a tell-tale sign that Zehringer
wants to hear happy news first, foremost and last.
Even more startling,
near the conclusion of the video Obermiller commented on a question
addressing these two ad hoc committees. Regarding the new Wildlife Ad
Hoc Committee, Obermiller said that he believes there are 12 members
but “I can’t tell you all (their) names.” That is a stunning
admission given that one of the committee members said he was
recruited to join the group by none other than Obermiller himself.
Obmiller said as
well that one year from now when he returns to the Trappers’ annual
convention, if the group’s membership tells him that the Natural
Resources Department has “mucked things up” he’ll take his
“medicine.”
Alas, the
Kasich-Zehringer-Obermiller political machine has pretty much
squandered seven of its eight allotted years. And sadly this means
that Administration officials still have an entire year and change to
keep mucking things up, to recycle Obermiller’s own words.
To view the video, go to the Ohio State trappers Association’s
Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/456132764517105/.
Note that at times the visual portion of the
program is heavily pixelated while the audio portion includes
segments that will need rewinding and subsequent rehearing.
- By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net
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