Wisconsin DNR’s long-serving leaders ‘retiring’

Tom Hauge was the chief of wildlife management for 25 years before learning he would be demoted. He promptly retired. photo by Tim Eisele

At the Sept. 28 Natural Resources Board meeting in Madison DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp lavished praise on DNR employees: “We have the best and brightest, gifted professionals in state government, bar none.”

Yet, just a few days before her staff was giving the news to 37-year-employee Tom Hauge, director of the DNR’s Bureau of Wildlife Management, that he was being demoted and sent to a district office.

It seems that this “gifted leadership team” is getting urged, prodded, or otherwise encouraged to think seriously of retirement.

The numbers keep piling up, and beside Hauge include:

Tim Lawhern, Division of Enforcement administrator, had only weeks previously said that he hoped to continue in his job for more years when suddenly he retired. He was with the DNR for 25 years.

Jack Sullivan, director of the DNR’s Bureau of Science Services, who was with DNR for 31 years. He retired when he saw that that DNR had no intention to restore science positions.

Paul DeLong, chief state forester and DNR employee for 24 years, suddenly retired in September and took a job with the American Forest Foundation.

Each was respected in their positions, and had helped the DNR develop a national reputation for environmental leadership.

Why is it that employees who have been at the DNR for 20 years or more and who appear to be enjoying their work, abruptly retire?

Part of the answer is that this is the footprint of a cabinet agency.

Gov. Scott Walker, and Stepp, use the line “we can have a clean environment and be good for business.” At the same time Walker chips away at the DNR, eliminates more than two dozen employees in science services, and loosens up phosphorous regulations.

The governor has complete control of the agency. He appointed a politician with no formal training in natural resources to head the Wisconsin DNR, an agency that was once a national leader.

Long-time heads of bureaus and sections can see the direction the agency is heading. Underlings are not given permission to talk to the news media, everything is cleansed and funneled through spokespeople.

Back in the 1960s, long-time employee Wilbur Stites had been recruited from the Illinois Conservation Department to set up an electronic information system in Wisconsin at the then-Wisconsin Conservation Department.

Stites began radio and television programs that were carried throughout the state.

He often reflected on what it was like to work in the then-Illinois Conservation Department, that each time an election was held and a new governor came in a new agency head was appointed and many of the managers changed, even down to the field level.

He was thankful that Wisconsin was not involved in the political patronage system.

In 1976 that began to change, when Tony Earl, who was Gov. Pat Lucey’s choice to run DNR, was selected to run the DNR. Suddenly Information and Education employees were “dispersed,” including the then 60-year-old Stites to a field office two hours away.

In 1994, Tommy Thompson got his wish of having the DNR secretary appointed by the governor.

Long-established programs and long-term employees now go by the wayside easily.

The DNR secretary often praises DNR employees in public, saying how fantastic and dedicated they are. Then, in the next breath, they are gone. It is nothing new that DNR employees are dedicated to the resources of the state, but the fact that so many long-time employees suddenly up and quit or retire is new, and it isn’t good.