There's a good reason why so many people in Arkansas think the state's Game and Fish Commission will bring back the bobwhite quail. Because the state's Game and Fish Commission is good at that sort of thing.
You don't have to be an old-timer to remember when the woods were quiet in the spring. But these days the tom turkeys will shake the pine straw out of the trees on April mornings. In a lot of places in Arkansas, a turkey hunter might work two or three birds in any given morning. And whether he bags one is almost secondary. Just listening to the birds scream and gobble is enough to set your hair on end.
And there was a time, kids, when deer were so scarce in this state that hunters weren't allowed to take does, the deer, the female deer. Nowadays let's just say the hunting restrictions are looser. Because deer are everywhere.
So it's hard to doubt when the commissioners at the Game and Fish say they're going to focus on getting back the bobwhite. Some of us look forward to the day when we can, once again, call the birds to our back porch on summer evenings.
The director of the Game and Fish Commission, one Mike Knoedl, says he's going to retire. His term will expire in July, along with everybody's hunting licenses. The opinion of most in the know is that Mike Knoedl was one of the good ones. And government can use all the good ones it can get.
When he first took the job back in 2012, the Game and Fish Commission was going through a rough patch. And that was mainly its own fault. (Note to his successor: Let's never try to override the state's Freedom of Information laws again, hmm?)
Back in 2012, the commission suffered from poor employee morale, and let's say a Strained Relationship with the politicians at the Ledge and at the Governor's mansion. And although the commission has a budget of more than $80 million a year, it was considered financially overextended.
Then Mike Knoedl took over. And instead of giving a set amount of money to all its divisions--for those division chiefs to spend at will and with little oversight--they were required to budget and plan. As if it wasn't just government money they were spending. What a way to run a government agency. Would that more were run this way.
These days Mike Knoedl is credited with restoring morale and--at the same time--budget discipline. How about that for a neat trick? Tighten the belt of your agency and have employees like it. Maybe that's because Mike Knoedl was one of them--an employee. He started his 31-year career as a wildlife officer in Perry County, and worked his way up to director.
Even those who weren't exactly thrilled with his hiring in 2012 have come around. His early critics had nothing but good things to say about him in the papers this week.
Now it's Mike Knoedl's turn to leave the office behind, and perhaps pick up a fishing rod, or a favorite shotgun, and take to the outdoors and his well-deserved retirement. When he leaves in July, the fish will be biting again.
Good for him, and good for the state that he worked as long as he did. And one day, if the commission keeps at it--and no doubt it will--Mike Knoedl might join us in calling up those bobwhites to the back porch. We can hardly wait.
Editorial on 01/28/2016