The plan, Total Quality Management (TQM), was developed by one of the nations leading authorities on how to assure quality and continuous quality improvement. "Quality", in this case, refers to how well this agency carries out its job of managing fish and wildlife. It is being adopted by various government and private groups nationwide.
The plan calls for all employees to be on the alert constantly for way to improve how the Service conducts its business.
James C. Gritman, Regional Director, emphasizes the need for innovative ideas for improvement and any other support from wildlife enthusiasts outside the agency. "There is a great interest in wildlife these days, and we know there is a tremendous capacity for supportive thinking from many groups and individuals that we should be utilizing", Gritman points out. He mentioned the North American Waterfowl Management Plan as an example. This is a nationwide effort involving various state, Federal and private organizations all working to protect waterfowl populations.
A conference of Region 3 employees was held in Minneapolis in early February, 1991. A major part of the conference was devoted to meeting the wildlife-environment needs of the future, a future that is certain to bring greater and greater pressure on the nations resources due to population increases, outdoor recreation growth, pollution, and so on.
The Director of the Service, John Turner, addressing a conference banquet, put it briefly, "We are not doing anything wrong, it is just that the needs of the future dictate that we do things better,"
Besides placing heavy emphasis on utilizing the talents of "partners" with the Service, TQM emphasizes the giving of awards to employees, both individuals and organizations, for their level of quality performance. At the conference, the Daniel H. Janzen Total Quality Management Award was initiated. Janzen was the Regional Director in Region 3 from 1946 until 1957 when he became Director of the Service. He was highly respected, not only for his professional conservation acumen, but also for his management skills and abilities.
The divisions of Region 3 named as Daniel H. Janzen Award recipients for 1991 were: Wetland Management Complex in Minnesota; Law Enforcement Division at Ann Arbor, Michigan; Environmental Management Technical Center at LaCrosse, Wisconsin; the Marquette Biological Station, Marquette, Michigan; and the Division of Personnel Management, Regional Office, Twin Cities, Minnesota.
The states in Region 3 of the Service are Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. The agencys basic mission is to "conserve, protect, and enhance fish and wildlife and their habitats for the benefit of people." The Service is an agency of the Department of Interior.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 93-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System which encompasses more than 530 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 66 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 78 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces Federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies. For further information about the programs and activities of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Great Lakes-Big Rivers Region, please visit our home page at: http://midwest.fws.gov
