The Ohio Department of Natural Resources
1949-1989

Charles C. King, Editor, December 1990

By their very nature and closeness to our daily lives, natural resources are often the root causes of public controversy, economic struggles, or war itself. Sometimes they have been preserved with passion and sometimes pillaged for profit.

This book is about natural resources and about public policy and management practices applied to them. It is the story of how one state has evolved the laws, structures and policies to manage natural resources for the public good. It is also a story about people-people who have played a major role in shaping Ohio's natural resource history.

While the fundamental course of the Department has not materially changed, its people have. The directions of the Department have also changed with constituent demands and lifestyles. Natural resources themselves are changed through the actions of people and natural evolution.

According to Robert Burns, "Nature's mighty law is change." This book is a valuable chronology of these changes.

Robert W. Teater, Ph.D.
Director, Ohio Department of Natural Resources
1975-1983