Vern Ross, Executive Director, John Dzemyan and John Riley, President Board of Game Commissioners.

John Dzemyan, Pennsylvania Game Commission Land Management Group Supervisor in Elk and McKean counties, recently was presented with the Shikar-Safari International Wildlife Conservation Officer of the Year Award.

"LMGS Dzemyan has a reputation for working above and beyond the call of duty, whether making habitat improvements on State Game Lands, promoting the deer management program or responding to an emergency," noted Dennis Dusza, Game Commission Northcentral Region director. "His interest in and passion for wildlife and wild places is unmistakable."

A 26-year veteran of the agency, Dzemyan got his start with the agency as a member of a Cameron County Food and Cover Corps crew. He later was accepted into the 18th Class of the Ross Leffler School of Conservation, where he graduated in 1982. He was assigned to the Smethport region of McKean County, and later became a land management group supervisor for McKean and Elk counties, a position he still holds.

Over the years, Dzemyan has forged a valuable working relationship with members of the Allegheny National Forest, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources' bureaus of State Parks and State Forests, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the National Wild Turkey Federation, as well as important business connections, such as Weyerhaeuser Paper Co., P&N Coal Co., Seneca Resources and the National Fuel Gas.

Dzemyan and the Food and Cover Corps crews he oversees have played large roles in establishing and shaping the state's best elk-watching locations, including Winslow Hill, which attracts about 75,000 tourists annually. Dzemyan also has been instrumental in getting an $11 million mine reclamation project started in Dent's Run. The work is expected to reduce by 40 percent the acid mine drainage currently impacting the water quality of Bennett's Branch of Sinnemahoning Creek.

"LMGS Dzemyan has worked hard to enroll a considerable number of private properties in the agency's Cooperative Forest Game Program," Dusza said. "Some of these landowners have as much as 145,000 acres enrolled in the program, all of which they make available to hunters. It's a tremendous benefit to sportsmen and sportswomen, one that Dzemyan works hard to maintain."

9/2/2005