.jpg)
ST. PAUL — One of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ top leadership positions is turning over in July when Dave Olfelt, the agency’s FishandWildlifeDivisiondirector,will retire after 37 years of service.
Olfelt started with DNR in 1987 in the agency’s Nongame and Natural Heritage Program and has worked as a field biologist, in state park programs and as regional wildlife official, among other positions. He’s been the leader of the Fish and Wildlife Division for the past five years.
DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen on Monday said that Kelly Straka, who has headed the DNR’s wildlife section for the past four years, will take over Olfelt’s position heading the Fish and Wildlife Division.
The Fish and Wildlife Division’s budget is about $276 million annually and the division has 561 employees across the state dealing with every aspect of wildlife and fisheries management and research. That includes everything from wildlife diseases to invasive carp, from doe permits to trout stamps —and trying to keep hunters and anglers happy about walleyes, whitetails and waterfowl.
Stromment said in a letter to DNR employees Monday that under Olfelt’s leadership, “the division continued its aggressive approach to managing chronic wasting disease, employed a ground-breaking approach in updating Minnesota’s wolf management plan, formally changed the status of native rough fish and strengthened relationships with the bait industry and updated the management plans for four of the eight major units within the DNR’s wildlife management area system.”
Olfelt, 63, of Grand Rapids, officially retiresJuly3butwillcontinueinaparttime position to oversee the agency’s transition to an electronic licensing system in March 2025.
Olfelt on Monday told the News Tribune that he was humbled to be part of an organization “where people are working to make a difference. It’s been a great job, a great career.”
He said overriding issues like habitat loss and climate change, which can impactfishwildlifewithmorediseases, droughts, floods and increased insects and other pests, as problems that will need continued, constant attention by the agency.
Olfelt has helped oversee the state’s battle against chronic wasting disease and efforts to thwart invasive species like silver and bighead carp from invading the state’s waterways beyond the Mississippi River. He praised Minnesota’s progressive natural resource funding system, which includes a portion of the state’s sales tax as well as state lottery profits, aimed at environmental and conservation efforts.
“We live in a state that prioritizes the outdoors and natural resources, and that makes a tremendous difference in how we are able to do our jobs here,” Olfelt said, noting recent successes like the restoration of Marsh Lake as a waterfowl wetland in western Minnesota and the return of sturgeon spawning on the Ottertail River for the first time in over a century.
Straka, 45, of Proctor, earned a bachelor’s degree in fisheries and wildlife management and began her conservation career in Minnesota DNR’s Shallow Lakes Program. Her career then took her across the ocean to work with wildlife on the big island of Hawaii.
Straka returned to Minnesota to pursue adual-degree program, earning amaster’sdegreeinpublichealthanda doctorate in veterinary medicine, with a focus on wildlife health and interdisciplinary medicine. She served as the state wildlife veterinarian in Missouri and later as the wildlife health section supervisor for the state of Michigan.
Straka returned to Minnesota to become the DNR’s wildlife section manager in 2021.
“Kellyhasapassionforpubliclands, mentoring people in the outdoors, supporting natural resource managers and building cross-disciplinary partnerships,” Strommen said in the letter. “These passions, combined with her commitment to the health of our fish and wildlife resources, make her a terrific fit for the Fish and Wildlife director position.”
