Carl Roe

The Board of the Pennsylvania Game Commissioners this week selected Carl Roe to serve as the agency's new executive director.

Roe will succeed Vern Ross, current executive director, when he retires on December 31. Ross announced his retirement at the Board's meeting on June 28.

"We believe that Carl Roe will be an excellent chief executive officer for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, and that he will be able to build on the agency's long list of conservation accomplishments," said Board of Game Commissioners President John J. Riley.

"I look forward to this new opportunity and new phase in my professional career," Roe said. "I plan to work with the hunters and trappers of Pennsylvania, as well as other conservation-minded organizations, to further the agency's wildlife management objectives and habitat improvement projects.

"There are many challenges on the horizon, not the least of which is the agency's current fiscal situation, but I firmly believe that this agency and its many dedicated men and women will be able to pull together and overcome any obstacle."

Roe currently serves as the agency's Bureau of Administrative Services director, and has spearheaded the effort to implement an electronic license sale system, commonly referred to as "point-of-sale." In 2001, Roe joined the agency as its first ever long-range strategic planner, and has continued in his current position to oversee the implementation of the agency's Strategic Plan.

A native of Wayne, Montgomery County, Roe grew up hunting and fishing in Pennsylvania, and continued these activities during his young adulthood on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. He is a member of the National Wild Turkey Federation and the National Rifle Association.

The Board received nearly 70 applications for the position from around the country.

Created in 1895 as an independent state agency, the Game Commission is responsible for conserving and managing all wild birds and mammals in the Commonwealth, establishing hunting seasons and bag limits, enforcing hunting and trapping laws, and managing habitat on the more than 1.4 million acres of State Game Lands it has purchased over the years with hunting and furtaking license dollars to safeguard wildlife habitat.

The agency also conducts numerous wildlife conservation programs for schools, civic organizations and sportsmen's clubs.

The Game Commission does not receive any annual General Fund state taxpayer dollars.

NewsClip: Roe Takes Leadership of Game Commission at Key Time

12/2/2005