Mark Miller, who has served three months as Gov. Pat Quinn’s choice as director of the Department of Natural Resources, won confirmation for the post on Friday from the Illinois Senate.
The Senate also confirmed Dan Grant to head the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs.
Miller will earn $133,273 and Grant will make $115,613 a year.
Miller won the unanimous support Thursday from the Senate’s Executive Appointments Committee. Committee members include Sens. Dan Rutherford of Chenoa, James DeLeo, William Delgado, Don Harmon, Louis S. Viverito, David Luechtefeld, Dan Duffy, John A. Millner and chairman Antonio Munoz.
Miller told the Senate panel that state parks contribute $790 million in economic development to Illinois according to Friday’s News Gazette. Hunting and fishing revenues added another $2.1 billion to the state’s economy.
Miller served five years as executive director for the Champaign-based Prairie Rivers Network before joining then-Lt. Gov. Quinn’s staff as a policy advisor for environmental affairs. He worked closely with Quinn’s Illinois River Coordinating Council before being named DNR director last February.
More fish cribs and a fresh stocking of fingerling largemouth bass are brightening fishing prospects at Braidwood Lake.
Just last week Exelon Nuclear, local volunteers and state biologists teamed up to deploy an addition $6,500 worth of fish habitat structures at the lake.
The structures — plastic posts on an anchored based — will act as nursery habitat for young fish and promote aquatic growth to lure larger fish.
So far Exelon has spent nearly $20,000 on habitat improvements over the past three years.
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Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced that $150,000 in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding will be used to restore fish and wildlife habitat along the Pecatonia River floodplain in northern Illinois.
The funding will be made available for voluntary habitat projects through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife program in partnership with private landowners. “Partners program projects are typically constructed by local contractors, channeling dollars to the local economy,” Salazar said.
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The recent spring wild turkey season produced a mixed bag for hunters around the state.
Early counts show that the turkey havest total of 15,488 birds was just off last year’s 15,792 bag count.
Grundy County was the best place for finding wild turkeys in The Daily Journal area. Hunters bagged 44 birds, up from 33 last year. Livingston County also saw a slight increase with a total of 19 birds.
Will, Kankakee and Iroquois counties all saw declines in the turkey harvest.
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Registrations are now being accepted for a youth astronomy camp in July at the Conway Observatory on the grounds of the Buckley Homestead near Lowell, Ind.
Advance registration is due by May 23 or until the camp is filled. Call Lake County Parks at 219-769-PARK to sign up. The camp is sponsored by Lake County, Ind. Parks and conducted by the Calumet Astronomical Society and astronomy professors from Purdue University.
The camp is recommended for students between 6th and 12th grade. Parents are urged to accompany campers in grades 6 to 8. Bring lawn chairs for seating and a flashlight for night time use. (see schedule below)
Grant Park High School finished in 10th place with in the nation’s first high school bass championships.
Derrick and Nick Abels of Grant Park scored a two-day total 6.88 pounds during the state finals at Carlyle Lake near downstate Centralia.
Nate Bass and Chris Foster of Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School finished 24th out of the 53 teams entered.
Coal City High School was not included in the top 34 rankings posted at 6:04 p.m. Saturday on the IHSA Web site.
West Frankfort High School at Frankfort, Ill. was the winner with a total of five fish weighing 16.25 pounds. Zion High School at Benton finished second at 15.44 pounds and St. Charles North came in third at 12.75 pounds.
Click HERE for full tournament results.
High winds forced an early end to today’s Illinois High School Association’s Bass Championships at Carlyle Lake.
Still Grant Park’s Derrick and Nick Abels ranked eighth out of 53 teams after only three hours on the water. The team creeled two bass for a total weight of 3.63 pounds. St. Charles North leds Day 1 with a five fish limit weighing in a 10.5 pounds.
Bradley-Bourbonnais’ Nate Bass and Chris Foster are ranked 17th. Coal City High School’s team of Adam Banks and Brett Eggemeyer were not listed among the top 20 teams.
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Hunters will see a slight increase in the archery deer and late winter antlerless-only seasons and will find it easier to obtain unsold firearm and muzzleloader-only permits this fall and winter.
Three days have been added to the archery deer hunt and the late winter season has been expanded to seven days on recommendations by hunters, landowners, and other members of the state’s Joint Deer Population Task Force.
Unsold firearm and muzzleloader-only deer permits will also be available over-the-counter at DNR Direct license and permit vendors thanks to changes in the deer season regulations for the 2009-10 seasons.
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