Addendum September 10th: Shortly after this blog appeared September 6th, the archery shooting platform was rebuilt
With political skill that is universal within any administration, the current cadre of Ohio Department of Natural Resources officials working for Ohio Governor Mike DeWine are no less obdurate than were the previous officials under previous-governor John Kasich.
Not surprising given that all Ohio saw was a chessmaster’s game of reshuffling deck chairs; with more than a few previous Kasich-appointed employees now collecting their paychecks while working within another department of office, or else advancing within the ranks. Meanwhile, employees under other state agencies found continued employment when DeWine took the helm.
Consequently, these politically appointed functionaries brought with them their bureaucratic baggage. We saw this several months ago when the Natural Resources Department’s Ohio Division of Wildlife proposed a bobcat trapping season.
However, the agency withdrew the proposal only after issuing a soft-touch explanation how it listened to constituents and that the matter wasn’t really cast in stone. In truth, the Natural Resources Department was taken to the woodshed and told in no uncertain terms that the proposal was DOA.
All of which is a round-about way of saying “same old/same old.”
Several days ago Brown County’s Troy Conley and some of his kin wanted to fine-tune their archery skills. So Conley – a self-admitted critic of the Natural Resources Department – paid a visit to the latter’s handicapped-accessible archery range at the 1,799-acre Indian Creek Wildlife Area near the one traffic-light stop of Fayetteville.
When Conley arrived he found the range’s elevated shooting stand unusable. Equally upsetting to Conley was that the platform had a new set of steps, but that the old set of steps was cast aside about 20 yards away.
Photos that Conley took of the platform and cast-aside steps showed how the former was damaged beyond use and the latter simply jettisoned.
And all just a few weeks before the start of Ohio’s archery-deer hunting season when Conley is most eager to practice shooting his compound bow from an elevated position.
When alerted to the matter by Conley, I electronically reached out to both Natural Resources Department Director Mary Mertz and Wildlife Division chief Kenrda Wecker.
True to form, the Natural Resources Department response was long on excuses but short on practical problem-solving.
“Our staff were quick to act when a dead ash tree fell on the platform this summer and closed it to use,” said Sarah Wickham, chief of the Natural Resources Department’s Office of Communications.
“The supporting posts and stairs are in good shape and we plan to soon replace the platform. Hazard tape was used to mark the platform and it has been torn away. We will barricade the steps until repairs can be made.”
Not taking “no” for an answer, more specific questions were asked. Among them were when did it happen, why wasn’t the structure torn down immediately, why was the old set of steps simply cast aside and not removed, and most importantly of all: when will the structure be rebuilt.
Also true to form, the response from the Natural Resources Department was greasily elusive.
“Our outdoor spaces are vast and natural so we appreciate any time an issue is brought to our attention,” Wickham responded the second time around as well.
“In this case, the area manager was aware of the issue and acted quickly to address it. The area is marked with caution tape as the area manager works to source materials for the repairs (pressure treated lumber and associated building materials are hard to come by). Repairs will be made as soon as possible. Thanks for your interest.”
Lost in this translation, of course, is that Conley had found no warning-against-trespassing tape nor other, similar, cautionary signage. At least not until after the matter was brought to the attention of the Natural Resources Department’s higher-ups
As for Wickham’s line that “...pressure treated lumber and associated building materials are hard to come by…,” well, the facts do not entirely fit that alternate reality.
“(I) just called Kibler Lumber Company in Mr. Orb, which is 10 miles south of the archery range,” Conley said in a September 5th electronic text.
“(I) asked for 2x4s and 2x6s and there’s no shortage of any treated lumber. They stock 200 boards, (and this) was the lowest inventory of anything they stock.”
To double-check on the availability of pressure-treated lumber within Wildlife District Five (Southwest) Ohio and near the Indian Creek Wildlife Area, on September 6th I called the Lowe’s Home Improvement Store in Hillsboro. This lumber-supply business is less than 20 miles from the archery range.
I requested information about the availability of pressure treated lumber; specifically mentioning the intention of building an elevated archery platform. A member of that store’s lumber department said the store had an ample supply of such lumber and even had received a fresh shipment.
“I’m disappointed the shooting platform’s been in that condition for so long, and no attempt has been made to get it ready so we could use it to practice for the up-coming archery season,” Conley said.
Conley even offered a suggestion to speed things up, given that a functional shooting platform is vastly preferable to any “Unsafe To Use” signage.
“They could have asked the Ohio Bowhunters or any number of local archery clubs for help,” Conley said. “I’m positive they would have supplied the manpower – and very possibly the material – to fix the platform or replace it. But they don’t care; all they want to do is keeping kicking the can down the road.”
Clearly the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the Ohio Division of Wildlife not only should do better, they can do better.
Indeed, they must do better.
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net
JFrischk4@gmail.com
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