Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Fish and Wildlife Division director Dave Schad's promotion to deputy commissioner of the agency on Monday by new DNR commissioner Tom Landwehr won't be opposed publicly by any of the department's constituents. Still, a few are grumbling.
The move to kick Schad, 53, upstairs at DNR into the commissioner's office was foretold by Doug Smith last Friday in his Star Tribune report on Landwehr's appointment to the top DNR job by Gov. Mark Dayton.
A longtime friend of Landwehr's, Schad, who joined the DNR in 1981, is seen as a functionary, and an efficient one, but one who keeps his passion for natural resources stewardship fairly well hidden.
At least one key DNR stakeholder quietly tried to talk Landwehr out of his appointment of Schad to the deputy post at last weekend's agency Roundtable.
Obviously, he wasn't successful.
Landwehr views his pal Schad -- the two hunt pheasants together and regularly venture to Manitoba in October for ducks -- as a confidante, and someone who knows what's been happening at DNR in the dozen or so years since Landwehr has been gone from the department working for Ducks Unlimited and The Nature Conservancy.
Schad is also well versed in dealing with legislative committees and other duties at the Capitol that will confront the DNR in coming months. He replaces Laurie Martinson, who is well respected, but whose future with the DNR is unknown. For the time being, her duties will remain largely unchanged.
Still, Schad's appointment is not without possible downsides for Landwehr, and how effective their professional relationship is, ultimately, will depend to a significant degree on whether Landwehr's presumed new energy and vision for the agency wins over Schad, or whether Schad's seemingly rather more entrenched pace and outlook subsume his boss.