Fish & Wildlife promotes Marcus, Kershaw

Indiana DNR Release:

Division of Fish & Wildlife director Mark Reiter announced the recent promotion of two staff members.

– Mitch Marcus as Wildlife Section chief
– James Kershaw as Public Lands Program manager

“These guys have proved themselves as assets to our division for quite a few years,” Reiter said. “Throughout their careers, they have served in positions with increased levels of responsibility and made significant contributions to the Division of Fish & Wildlife mission. I am confident they will continue being major contributors to our future successes.”

As Wildlife Section chief, Marcus will supervise three areas – wildlife science, private lands management and public lands management, and the 180 DNR employees who work on such things as statewide game management, wildlife regulations, science and research, wildlife habitat development on private land, management of state fish and wildlife properties, and land acquisition.

“I’m excited about trying to get this ball rolling on the land acquisition project that Gov. (Mitch) Daniels announced a couple weeks ago,” Marcus said, referring to dual projects along the Wabash and Muscatatuck rivers aimed at acquiring approximately 70,000 acres of floodplain land along the two river corridors. “I’m also pretty excited with our efforts in recruitment and retention of hunters, and I’m looking forward to getting the (Wildlife) section at a point where we’ll be able to continue to use grant dollars to do wildlife work.”

Marcus joined DNR in 1993 as assistant property manager at Minnehaha Fish & Wildlife Area southeast of Terre Haute. He later worked as assistant property manager at Pigeon River Fish & Wildlife Area in northeast Indiana and as supervisor of the private lands programs for northern Indiana. He worked most recently in the DNR central office in Indianapolis as research supervisor for the division.

A native of Griffith, Marcus has a master’s degree in wildlife biology from Southern Illinois-Carbondale and a bachelor’s in biology from Wabash College.

He replaces Wayne Bivans, who retired from the DNR earlier this year.
In his new role, Kershaw will report to Marcus on management of DNR public lands holdings that encompass approximately 130,000 acres on 21 fish and wildlife areas.

“I’m looking forward to having a positive impact on the hunting and fishing opportunities that our public lands provide for all Hoosiers,” Kershaw said. “We have some of the best recreational opportunities in the Midwest, and there’s a pretty positive outlook and potential for the future as well with the Muscatatuck and Wabash initiatives and other projects we’re working on.”

A native of Brownsburg, Kershaw has been with DNR since 1999 and has worked as a laborer, operational planner and most recently as public access supervisor and staff specialist for the division’s Fisheries Section. He has a bachelor’s degree in Forestry and Wildlife Management from Purdue University.