Bill Cochran is a Roanoke Times outdoors columnist.

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Bill Cochran's Outdoors

Recent columns

• Hunters and anglers still in the conservation business
• Drum fishing on Virginia’s Coast comes in two colors
• Elk advocate finally gets his day
• Turkeys are plentiful, so why are hunting regulations so tight fisted?
• Column archive

Bill's Mailbag

• Remembering A. Willis Robertson
• Putting down a bear cub brings complaint
• Mail archive

Bill's Field Reports

• Eagles are up; black rail are down
• A. Willis Robertson great name for new DGIF headquarters
• Field reports archive

Resources

• Trout stocking schedule

Since 1916, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries has been known as one of the finest conservation agencies in the word, but that reputation has been tarnished in recent months. The agency has struggled under controversy to the point that its mission of managing wildlife resources and providing outdoor recreation for the citizens of he Commonwealth is being impeded.

It is time for Gov. Warner to step in and shake up the leadership and order the agency to spend funds and efforts on things that count and to involve people rather than control them.

Lacking that, there is going to be a blood bath that has potential for damaging the department beyond easy repair by alienating people who have worked side-by-side in the conservation movement.

This is more than a family squabble. The hunter, angler and boater remain the biggest supporters of conservation efforts in the state. If the agency that represents them fails to do its job, then someone is certain to promote a plan to wrestle management of wildlife resources and recreation away from those who have championed it for more than 80 years. That’s just how serious this thing is.

Who is the blame for all of the discontent?

Getting the spotlight, and rightfully so, have been Bill Woodfin, DGIF executive director; Dan Hoffler, board chairman, and game wardens Col. Terry Bradbery and Maj. Mike Caison.

Let me look beyond this foursome for a moment and point a finger at the DGIF board. The assignment of the 11-member board, which is appointed by the governor, isn’t to micromanage the agency, but to hold it accountable. It has failed to do that.

Board members have been docile while those who have captured control of the department operate with a “What’s in it for me,” autocratic mentality that has kept loyal and talented employees and the public at arm’s length.

Board Chairman Hoffler has been quoted as saying that complaints are coming from “a small group of people” and he has questioned their motives when they have asked tough questions or promoted alternate views.

Critics don’t just have a right to ask questions, they have a duty, and no one should be offended when they do. What’s more, it isn’t just a small group of troublemakers causing problems. There is a swelling wave of discontent that isn’t going away. New recruits are added daily as people learn the facts.

Leon Turner is one man intent on people learning the facts. From the Fincastle area, Turner served on the DGIF board for eight years, including two as chairman, in the late 1980s and early 90s. He has collected a stack of documents on the recent problems at the DGIF and has been traveling the byways of Virginia with about 40 names of past board members in hand, intent on contacting as many of them as he can for support.

Turner’s message is this: “Director Woodfin and other top management personnel involved in this matter need to resign and new management created to get this agency back on its feet.”

A high-profile ally was gained when J. Carson Quarles of Roanoke told Turner to add his name as a supporter. Quarles was reluctant to do so at first. “It was a very difficult decision for me,” he said.

Quarles, a Republican, served as chairman of the board four years, until 2002 when he was discharged by Gov. Warner and replaced with Hoffler, a Democrat.

A front-page article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch last week presented the DGIF crisis as a political squabble. While politics and conservation are inextricably linked, the problems at the DGIF go way beyond politics. Sportsmen need to be fully aware of that fact.

If the governor doesn’t resolve the issues at DGIF, it will be left to the sitting board to do so, and that is a scary point. Board members routinely rubber-stamps Woodfin’s requests, ask few questions, offers fewer suggestions and seldom engages in meaningful open discussion. They have stood by while constitutes and employees have being abused.

Hoffler says he isn’t going to back down his “We haven’t done anything wrong” position. He told the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk that the current board remains unanimously behind Woodfin.

Past board members, headed by Turner, are scheduled to ask for Woodfin and his cohorts to step down during a March 24 DGIF board meeting in Richmond. Hoffler will be in charge of the meeting, unless the governor says otherwise.

Turner would like nothing better than for the governor to step in and set things right. If he does, Turner said he would take the stack of damaging documents he has gathered for the board meeting and burn them in his backyard.

One way or another, this issue is going to produce fire. Smoke rising over Fincastle is preferable to smoke above Richmond.