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Ralph Loos: Another Illinois DNR director, another test for state’s natural resources

"Nobody should expect a DNR director to be apolitical. That’s unrealistic," Loos writes. "But Illinois sportsmen should expect the agency’s decisions to be driven primarily by science, wildlife management and the long-term health of the state’s natural resources." (Stock photo)

We all live in the past because it’s one of the few things we’re truly confident in – good or bad, sweet or sour, we can give the past a solid thumbs up or thumbs down with little doubt or hesitation.
But the future? It’s just a wild guess. I say all that to say this: There was a time when the DNR’s director’s office seemed like a place where conservation experience mattered. And I say that to follow up with this: Gov. JB Pritzker’s recent appointment of Jim Montgomery to lead the agency is only the latest chapter in a long-running pattern that should make hunters, anglers, trappers and other conservationists at least a little skeptical.

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