Outdoors fans laud appointment of Tom Landwehr as DNR commissioner
By Joe Kimball | Published Thu, Jan 6 2011 10:55 am
Gov. Mark Dayton’s appointment today of Tom Landwehr as Department of Natural Resources commissioner is going over well with outdoors enthusiasts — hunters, anglers, hikers and boaters.
And, the governor said, he’s respected by the business community.
To take the job, Landwehr announced his resignation as assistant state director for The Nature Conservancy in Minnesota, North and South Dakota.
He’s got quite the outdoors background, having worked for the DNR for 17 years as research biologist, wildlife manager and Wetland Wildlife Program leader, before leaving the agency in 1999. He’s also been state conservation director for Ducks Unlimited in Minnesota and Iowa.
Garry Leaf, executive director of SportsmenForChange.com, said in an interview that Landwehr’s appointment lives up to Dayton’s previous campaign promises to the outdoors community: “This matches up to those commitments.”
Leaf and others expect Landwehr to seek collaboration with other partners, like federal agencies and the many interest groups in the natural resources world, in preserving the state’s resources with state funding and Legacy Amendment funds.
Mining and timber interests seemed to favor another candidate for the DNR job — state Sen. Rod Skoe, DFL-Clearbrook — who was supported by some lobbyists and legislators in northern Minnesota and northwest Minnesota, according to Dennis Anderson, outdoors editor at the Star Tribune.
Anderson said Skoe, a rice farmer with no conservation management experience, was seen by these backers as friendly to logging and mining industries, which are important to the north’s economy.
Leaf said mining and lumber interests should have no problem with Landwehr’s appointment. “Once they meet him, they’ll be pleasantly surprised at how easy he is to get along with,” Leaf said.
Still, there will be some rough waters ahead for Landwehr, Anderson said:
Landwehr likely will face a tough political climate as DNR leader. Not only will certain legislators at times be hostile to the department’s interests, tight budgets will force the state’s new conservation boss to further consolidate the agency, and perhaps attempt to significantly overhaul it, in combination with the Board of Water and Soil Resources and the Pollution Control Agency.
And Landwehr’s quote on his appointment:
“By bringing together all those with a stake in the future of our state’s resources, I hope to show that sound conservation and vital communities are a natural combination. We need to have a Department of Natural Resources that works for all Minnesotans.”
