Longtime wildlife official selected by Dayton for commissioner job he calls both intimidating and awe-inspiring
By Dennis Lien, Pioneer Press
Published Jan. 7, 2011
Few state agency jobs are as daunting as the top one at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Tom Landwehr knows that, but he is still looking forward to tackling it.
“Its pretty intimidating, awe-inspiring and exciting all at the same time,” said Landwehr, Gov. Mark Dayton’s pick Thursday to be the new DNR commissioner, replacing Mark Holsten.
Landwehr, 55, brings loads of experience to the job.
He has a master’s degree in business, taught at the University of Minnesota’s School of Natural Resources and worked as a DNR scientist and wildlife manager for 17 years. After leaving the agency in 1999, he was state conservation director for Ducks Unlimited in Minnesota and Iowa until 2003. Since then, he’s been assistant state director for The Nature Conservancy in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.
He’ll need all those skills to navigate his way at the DNR, which oversees hunting, angling, parks, timber and mining pursuits, balancing competing economic, environmental and conservation interests that all have zealous constituencies
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Steve Morse, executive director of the Minnesota Environmental Partnership and a former DNR deputy commissioner, said Dayton made a solid choice in Landwehr.
“He is very good at working with the wide array of interests the agency needs to manage,” Morse said, adding, “He’s a strong advocate of hunting and fishing interests, but he understands those issues from an ecological perspective.”
MEP has been a strong advocate for tougher environmental protections for northern mining activities.
“I think he will be fair but firm,” Morse said. “He understands that the agency is there to be the defender of the natural resources.”