Sun Journal outdoor columnist inaccurate in his presentation of facts

Once again, Sun Journal outdoor columnist V. Paul Reynolds got it wrong.

His column, “Maine’s New Chief Warden,” which was published on June 1, is filled with factual inaccuracies. A columnist uses facts when expressing an opinion, and the columnist has the responsibility to ensure that the facts are truthful as to not mislead the public or violate its sacred trust in the media.

Reynolds did not check his facts before writing on the selection process of the Maine Warden Service’s new colonel, Joel Wilkinson. He should have.

It appears Reynolds wanted to write yet another indictment of the Maine Warden Service. If he wants to lambaste the credibility of the Maine Warden Service, he should make sure his information is credible. He expects you, the reader, to believe that his opinions are based on fact.

Don’t.

The Maine Warden Service colonel position is an appointed one, and the person who fills that role serves at the pleasure of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife commissioner. Reynolds knows very well about appointed positions, having been in one himself, as IF&W’s director of public information and education from September 1994 to June 1998.

Because the position is an appointed one, the commissioner has the legislative authority to select any member of the Warden Service to serve as the colonel without undertaking a selection process.

For the second time during my tenure as commissioner, I chose to conduct an exhaustive search within the Maine Warden Service to select a colonel, and I did so with the advice of a selection committee of respected law enforcement officials. The selection committee was announced in a press release on Dec. 17.

Reynolds wrote that Joel Wilkinson was a member of this group, and he suggests that if he was a member, then any lieutenant who applied for the colonel’s job should have been as well.

Reynolds had it wrong. Neither Joel Wilkinson nor any of the other applicants were members of the search committee. That would have posed a conflict of interest.

After conducting interviews with applicants over a two-day period, the search committee said it wanted three wardens who had not applied for the job to do so. Joel Wilkinson was one of those individuals. Wilkinson, whose rank was captain but at the time was serving as acting major, at first declined, but said that out of respect for the committee that he would give it some thought. After consulting with his family and trusted friends, he informed the committee that he would apply for the position.

Joel Wilkinson, like the other applicants, was interviewed. It was the committee’s recommendation that I select him for the position. After careful consideration, I asked him to be colonel.

Reynolds was right about one thing: “The men and women who comprise its (the Maine Warden Service’s) ranks are intelligent, resourceful and dedicated law enforcement people who will work their tails off to protect the fish and wildlife resource and adapt to just about any effective and enlightened leadership style.”

Game wardens have a new leader, a respectable, organized individual who has served with integrity since joining the ranks in 1992. I believe they will stand behind him.

Col. Wilkinson was chosen as the result of a fair and equitable selection process. For Reynolds to use the Sun Journal as a vehicle to inaccurately say otherwise is an unfortunate disservice to the public.

Roland “Dan” Martin is commissioner of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.