TWRA’s Restructure Plan Introduced at Commission Meeting
Friday, January 22, 2010 | 05:48am
TIPTONVILLE, Tenn. --- Ed Carter, Executive Director of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, presented an overview of a restructure plan of the agency to members of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Commission during the TWRC’s January meeting which was held at Reelfoot Lake State Park.
The Wildlife Management Institute (WMI) recently completed a comprehensive review and evaluation of the TWRA. Among the goals of the restructure plan are to improve communication, coordination, and cooperation between the agency’s four regions, and the Nashville headquarters and the regions. The plans call for the establishment of clear channels and accountability for program managers and uniformity and implementation of statewide programs.
The restructure calls for the creation of open communication and dialogue between all employees and disciplines and where possible, reduce the number of employees directly reporting to individual supervisors. The plan should increase cooperation across established administrative boundaries, and offer expanded avenues of advancement for employees.
The reorganization guidelines include that changes must be made with the existing number of positions and must result in cost savings to the agency.
In other items at the meeting, Greg Wathen, TWRA Wildlife Division Chief, gave a preliminary update for the 2010 elk hunt update which will be the state’s second. More details will be presented at the February meeting of the TWRC. A presentation was also made on new Tennessee’s Watchable Wildlife Web site which was launched earlier this month.
The TWRC approved the process to move forward toward developing a reciprocal agreement between Tennessee and Virginia on South Holston Lake to enable fishermen from either state to fish the entire lake if they so choose. To achieve that, there will be a special South Holston Lake permit that will have to be purchased by residents of either state to fish the entire lake, which would be less than the current cost of a non-resident license from either state. The states also agreed to establish the same regulations for the entire lake as well.
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