DES MOINES – Iowa Department of Natural Resources director Chuck Gipp has promoted Dr. Dale Garner to lead the division that oversees the Lands and Waters, Forestry, State Parks, Law Enforcement, Fisheries and Wildlife bureaus, replacing Kelley Myers who has accepted a position with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Myers had guided the division since 2012.
Garner joined the DNR in 1995 as the forest wildlife biologist, working out of the Chariton Research Station. He then became the coordinator of the North American Wetland Conservation Act grant programs in 2001 and other special projects like heading up the chronic wasting disease program. He was promoted to chief of the Wildlife Bureau in 2004.
Garner received a Ph.D. in Environmental and Forest Biology, from the State University of New York at Syracuse. He begins his new duties February 10. The new Wildlife Bureau chief has not yet been named.