Syracuse.com - DEC: Despite shortages of environmental conservation officers the department is 'able to effectively carry out it mission'

[HuntingNY-News]

The DEC hasn't had a training class for new environmental conservation officers since 2008.

It’s hunting season – the time of year you want environmental conservation officers out in full force monitoring the scene, making sure poachers and other law breakers are held accountable.

But what determines full force, and are there really enough officers in the woods, fields and waterways these days to do an adequate job?

It’s a matter of opinion. Some local outdoorsmen I’ve talked to in recent weeks are beginning to wonder if current staffing levels – locally and statewide – are ushering in an era where the state Department of Environmental Conservation has settled into doing less with less.

State Department of Environmental Conservation officials, though, insist that although they may be down in staff lately, the department’s law enforcement capabilities are up to snuff.

“Despite ECO vacancies, the DEC is able to effectively carry out its mission,” said DEC spokeswoman Lori Severino. “For example, hunting-related shootings have decreased in recent years with 2011 tying the safest year on record. DEC works with 3,000 volunteers to help provide safety courses to hunters each year. In addition, ECOs played a larger role in effectively responding to Hurricane Irene, Tropic Storm Lee and Hurricane Sandy.”

Let’s look at the numbers.

Severino said statewide there are currently 281 officers on staff, with 48 vacancies. That means the statewide force is down 14.5 percent.

Locally, in Region 7, the enforcement team, which oversees a nine-county area of 6,760 square miles, numbers 30. The staff is down 16.6 percent, lacking four environmental conservation officers and two investigators.

Normally, the numbers would be replenished each year by new training classes. In 2008, the DEC spent $1.2 million to buy a closed motel complex along the Salmon River with the idea of turning that into a training school for conservation officers, among other uses.

Prior to that, classes were held each year. From 2002 to 2008, the class sizes numbered from 17 to 32 students. The school runs 26 weeks, including classroom time and field training, Severino said.

Realistically, Severino added, the graduating students then need a month after their training is completed to be able to work independently in the field. A class next spring, though, wouldn’t put any new officers into the field until about seven months after it started

The DEC, though, hasn’t had a training class for environmental conservation officers since 2008. At this point, one is not scheduled for next spring because it’s not in the governor’s budget yet.

Despite that fact, the DEC is currently accepting applications.

“The DEC is proceeding with the hiring process, up to but not including making actual job offers,” Severino said. “DEC is finishing the physical testing this month and actively doing background investigations on those applicants who have already passed the physical (sits-ups, push-ups, and timed 1.5 mile run). The background check is lengthy: college transcripts, military records, reference checks, credit checks, neighbor interviews, fingerprints, criminal history, etc. Once DEC has the final approval to make job offers, medical and psychological exams will still need to be done.”

Even if the DEC does get approval from the budget next spring to hold a class for officers, there’s a couple of other numbers that deserve attention.

“Currently, 34 members of the DEC’s Division of Law Enforcement are eligible for 25-year regular retirement service in 2012, and additional 18 members are eligible in 2013,” Severino said.

Translation: Even if a class of as many as 32 students gets trained next spring, the current staff levels could remain unchanged, or possibly even grow worse because of retirements.

What about that training academy on the Salmon River?

“DEC uses the building as a training facility for all DEC programs,” Severino said. “We have been running a full schedule of required in-service training for existing ECOs and rangers. DEC programs use the facility for conferences, which has saved DEC thousands in lodging, meal and facility use fees that would have normally been incurred to hold meetings at other facilities.”

Severino said the DEC is running the facility for less than $100,000 a year.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog