Facing troubled DNR

"The Colonel" plans to be back at the Rockville Regatta this summer, but Alvin Taylor won't be a colonel anymore. He'll be the colonel's boss.

And the 6-foot, 5-inch law enforcement chief is likely to be wrestling bigger problems than the annual party-til-you-drop horde of boaters packed like a rush-hour traffic jam on Bohicket Creek.

Taylor, 58, of Yonge's Island, takes over as S.C. Natural Resources director in March. He has his work cut out for him.

The department he will run is a shadow of the one where he worked much of his 35-year wildlife officer career. DNR is operating on less than half the budget it had in 2001, and with only two-thirds of the people. More of its funding than ever is dependent on grants and fees. Grants keep shrinking and the fees are raised on the backs of unhappy sports people.

He will face a politically charged environment. Veteran director John Frampton was unceremoniously dumped in December in an agreement among a contingent of board members, some newly appointed by Gov. Nikki Haley. Frampton then was reinstated and allowed to retire on his own terms during a tense meeting with a board member accusing the contingent of collusion.

Almost everyone, it seems, wants to change the way DNR does business. Haley has pushed for pared-down, "business friendly" agencies. State legislators have made proposals such as moving law enforcement to the Public Safety Department, or moving S.C. Department of Health and Control environmental regulation to DNR, which doesn't currently regulate anything.

"I've heard of 20 different ways of splitting the baby," said Ben Gregg, S.C. Wildlife Federation director.

Law enforcement has lost nearly 100 wildlife officers, nearly one third of the force. The marine research lab at Fort Johnson has corridors of empty offices in the wake of funding cut backs after the 2008 recession. Conservation and sports groups worry for the agency's ability to continue managing fish and wildlife, much less bring back a disappearing population such as the red drum, or spottail bass, restored by DNR earlier in the decade.

Meanwhile, some critics want to keep cutting back DNR to a "core mission" as game warden.

When Taylor moved from his Lowcountry office to Columbia in 2004 to take over as law enforcement chief, he fretted about finding enough time to get out on the water or in the field. He now has reached the point in his career where he had begun to think about the next step, he says frankly. He has that 15-foot Bentz-Craft fishing boat rocking restlessly at his dock. The director job "was not on my radar screen."

So why did he take it? His eyes light up and he talks about people.

"I think our staff here at DNR have a passion for what they do, have a love for what they do," he says. "I just felt this is what I needed to do. I needed to be here to support that staff, support the mission of this agency." The mission, as Taylor sees it, remains the same: Protect natural resources.

Taylor grew up a farmer's son in Mullins. Askins Taylor, his dad, would leave rows of soy beans and corn at the edge of fields and tell his son that wildlife have to eat too. That lesson has stayed with him. In 2004, he said he couldn't imagine his grandchildren not being able to catch a spottail bass. He still can't.

South Carolina's natural resources bring $30 billion per year in tourism and other dollars, Taylor says. "I don't see that compromised because it's so important to the state. That's a business, if you look at it. I think that's the message we need to continue to push."

Taylor gives a broad smile when asked what he brings to the job. "Street smartness," he says.

The politics don't daunt him. Legislators are as supportive as ever, he says. He points out that last year, Haley became the first governor he can remember to come to the annual awards ceremony for wildlife officers. "I take that as support," he says.

But he has a tightrope to walk.

"I think our bottom line is to keep politics out of (managing natural resources). There's always a concern about politics becoming the most important part of managing the agency," said Gregg, a former DNR board member, about the federation. The new director "has got to do everything he can to keep state money coming in."

Taylor can do it, Gregg continued. "He has high integrity, and very good knowledge of the history and legacy of the department."

The new director doesn't plan to change the direction of the agency, because "DNR is not broken," he said. Shoring up staffing is critical. The research aspect of the department isn't likely to get back to where it was, but it would be a grave mistake for the department not to have the science to respond to game sport concerns.

He will be back out at Rockville, and get out in the field as much as he can, so staff knows that he knows their needs.

"That's always worked for me," he said.

Reach Bo Petersen at 937-5744 or follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bopete.