Taking an overview of Brent Manning’s reign as IDOC/IDNR director

Gordon “Brent” Manning was the most significant director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, even if you didn’t always agree with him.

Mr. Manning died Jan. 26 from complications related to Guillain-Barré syndrome, which the Mayo Clinic describes as a “rare autoimmune disorder [that] affects the nerves.”

More than 20 years after his 12-year directorship of the IDNR (and the former Department of Conservation), time to assess his impact.

Mr. Manning honed his interest in conservation and environmentalism while at Eastern Illinois University.

“Truly I’m not a fisheries biologist, nor am I a wildlife biologist. I’m more of an ecologist. It’s a mix of the two that makes a difference,” he said in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Oral History Program recorded with Mark DePue in 2010.

His masters came in zoology, on the feeding of smallmouth bass.

Sun-Times files

After working in private industry, he became a regional director for Ducks Unlimited in northern Illinois, where he learned to deal with different personalities.

Politics is a thorny business in the outdoors world.

Mr. Manning always stressed that he has a wildlife professional. In reality, he was a great politician.

Gov. Jim Edgar appointed Mr. Manning to head the IDOC in 1991, then the IDNR when formed in 1995.

Mike Conlin, fisheries chief during Mr. Manning’s entire tenure, graduated earlier from the same masters program.

”I knew him before he became director,” Conlin said. “He was active as a constituent. He was kind of a pain in the ass. When you were in the ring with him, you knew you were in a fight. He was quite the activist in terms of waterfowl. He would have our feet to the fire but good. That was kind of a pain. But I knew he was a real go-getter.”

Whether admitting it or not, Mr. Manning honed his political skills.

“He had the innate ability to bring various interest groups to consensus on many issues and then move those initiatives forward to completion,” emailed John Schmitt, first executive director of the Illinois Conservation Foundation.

“He was one of the strongest directors we ever had,” said Jerry Adelmann, just retired as president and CEO of Openlands. “His great accomplishment was Conservation Congress and bringing together the hook and bullet crowd with the ecologist crowd to build a much better appreciation of the broader part of the department. He cast a big net in engaging the public.

”[Mr. Manning] was always a leader; on the football field; at the school in his housing, he ran for the top post at his residence hall,” Conlin said.

Dale Bowman

Mr. Manning’s political skills were needed to deal with Illinois’ deer herd, which became a world-wide draw for hunters of white-tailed deer during his tenure.

Talking to DePue, Mr. Manning said that after his confirmation hearing, he was called into a small side room where legislators from both sides of the aisle told him they were taking the deer program away from the DOC under pressure from the Farm Bureau.

Manning pleaded for time to come up with a plan. Deer management remains with the IDNR and remains an ongoing issue. Lately the villains have been insurance companies more than the Farm Bureau.

It’s a rare issue where Mr. Manning is considered a villain, especially by deer hunters who think he opened the doors to outfitters.

“When I joined TWI, Brent was still an active board member and for several years he would call me every so often with an idea or suggestion,” emailed Paul Botts, president and executive director of The Wetlands Initiative. “I learned a lot from those phone calls. He was always very forward-looking even when telling a story from his extensive conservation experience to make his point.

“And of course that unique voice added to the gravitas of the tutorial – he really didn’t have to say `this is Brent Manning!’ “

Dale Bowman

His gravitas helped increase the holdings of the IDNR, notably building Site M (now Jim Edgar Panther Creek State Fish and Wildlife Area), acquiring the Mazonia South Unit and expanding Pyramid State Recreation Area. Pushback came on such expansions, in part because there’s finite amount money to use for sites.

He centralized staff in Springfield, most symbolized by the IDNR headquarters at Illinois State Fairgrounds. That changed the more decentralized or county-level authority of previous decades, about which I have mixed feelings.

”We got an awful lot done in the years he was director,” Conlin said. “Those were very good years for the resources. We had good budgets and we had good leadership. It was Camelot.”

Transcripts of the interview with Mark DePue (100 pages of very fascinating reading) are at presidentlincoln.illinois.gov/Resources/f7c442bd-4180-44fd-ba88-29e0e6d955b4/Manning_Bre_4FNL.pdf.

An extended personal obituary is available at bramleyfh.com/obituary/GordonBrent-Manning.