Fishing: John Arway Takes the Helm of an Agency on Troubled Waters
30-year veteran of the Fish and Boat Commission
Pittsburg Post Gazette
7 March 2010
By Deborah Weisberg
John Arway, newly appointed executive director of the Pennsylvania Fish
and Boat Commission, grew up in North Huntingdon.
A day before his appointment as executive director of the Pennsylvania
Fish and Boat Commission, Tuesday, John Arway received a fortuitous
phone call.
"There was a pause and when a voice said, 'This is Ralph Abele,' my
heart skipped a beat," recalled Arway, who'd immediately thought of the
deceased pioneer of Fish and Boat's resource-first agenda.
"It was Ralph Abele's son," said Arway, 57, of Lamar. "We've stayed in
touch over the years but he had no idea I was about to get this job. He
was very pleased, and then we shared stories about his father."
The senior Abele was the first of five executive directors under whom
Arway worked after joining the agency in 1980. Until his promotion
Tuesday, Arway spent more than two decades as chief of the
Environmental Services division and credits Abele with shaping his
career. Arway worked closely with the commission board two years ago on
crafting a renewed commitment to Abele's philosophy. It helped make him
the front-running candidate out of more than 100 prospects when the
executive director job became available in July, although it wasn't the
only reason he was the board's unanimous pick, according to
commissioner Bob Bachman, of Denver, Pa.
"Our job is to protect the resource. Sure, we're here to provide
fishing and boating opportunities, but you can't do it if you don't
protect the fish," Bachman said. "John's been dealing with tough
environmental decisions for a long time, which are high on the
commission's priorities, like impacts from Marcellus shale [gas
drilling], and the Susquehanna River, which has serious water quality
issues affecting smallmouth bass."
While Bachman praised Arway's "technical expertise," he said his
30-year career at the commission was also a big plus.
"Institutional knowledge helps a huge amount," said Bachman. "When
you've worked somewhere a long time, you know how to connect the dots."
Arway had applied for the executive director job six years ago, but the
board instead picked Doug Austen, a fisheries biologist then working
for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. After a series of
clashes with the board over the years, the commissioners demoted Austen
in July. He officially resigned in January, and currently freelances
for the agency as a $54-an-hour consultant.
Arway has biology degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and
Tennessee Technological University and will be paid more than $118,000
a year, pending approval by Gov. Ed Rendell.
He said he looks forward to tackling complex challenges, including
securing new funding sources for a state agency that functions on a
user-pay system, with revenues determined mostly by fishing and boating
license fees. The commission receives no public funding.
"We have always gone back to the well with fishing and boating
licenses, only to get overtaken by inflation," said Arway. "But just
like people diversify investment portfolios, we as an agency have to
diversify our funding portfolio."
He indicated cooperation from lawmakers would be critical.
Also key, he said, is attracting new and "lapsed" anglers. Although
license sales increased more than 4 percent in Pennsylvania last year,
they haven't yet rebounded from an earlier decline.
"Our ability to track anglers now that we have the electronic license
sales system means we can do a better job of finding why they're coming
in and out of the sport, and then we can put a plan together to address
it," Arway said.
A native of North Huntingdon, Arway spent his youth fishing Cranberry
Glade Lake in the mountains of Somerset County, and is convinced
summers of panfishing off a dock, setting jugs for snapping turtles and
camping under the stars were the genesis of his affinity for the
natural environment.
"Back then, we spent weekends and summers having outdoors adventures,"
Arway said. "That was our fun and it was as routine as getting up in
the morning and brushing our teeth. Today, there's so much competition
for kids' attention, families have to intentionally make time to get
outside, whereas before it was a way of life."
Having grown up fishing for stocked trout, Arway said there is a
recreational need for hatchery-raised fish, as well as managing and
protecting the wild resource.
"Both kinds of fisheries are important, and Pennsylvania has a variety
of waters that can support both," he said. "They don't have to be
competing fisheries."
The outdoors remains a big part of Arway's life. The owner of five
boats, he is a multi-species angler as comfortable with bait fishing as
he is with flies.
"My style of fishing is whatever it takes," he said. "I target perch,
walleyes and steelhead on the Great Lakes, and fish for flounder and
croaker in the Chesapeake. In spring, I fish the hatches on Spring
Creek, Penn's Creek and the Little J. I'll also roam around and fish
small lakes, like Hills, Nesmuk and Hammond. I like panfishing with
friends and family."
The only drawback to moving to Harrisburg for his new job, he said, is
that he leaves a home where Fishing Creek flows through the front yard,
and he was just 15 minutes from Sayers Reservoir in Bald Eagle State
Park. "But I plan on getting back as often as I can," he said.
In the meantime, there's plenty of new ground to cover. Immediate
priorities, aside from developing new funding sources, include securing
a contract for waterways conservation officers who have worked two
years without one, and fostering a sense of teamwork among employees.
He said he also wants to engage anglers in the agency's decision-making
process.
"We'll be soliciting angler input," Arway said. "I'm an avid angler and
I respect other anglers' and boaters' opinions."