Conservation commissioner fills four state posts

AUGUSTA — State Conservation Commissioner Ronald B. Lovaglio appointed four officials last week, including directors of the state Forest Service and Bureau of Public Lands.

Charles J. Gadzik of Carroll Plantation becomes director of the Maine Forest Service; Willard R. Harris Jr., Readfield, administrative services director; Robert G. Marvinney, Readfield, director of the Maine Geological Survey; and Thomas A. Morrison of Waldoboro, director of the Bureau of Public Lands.

As director of the Forest Service, Gadzik will be responsible for the agency’s fire control programs, forest management and insect and disease management programs. A forester, Gadzik will serve as ex-officio member of the three-person Baxter Park Authority.

He served on the Land Use Regulation Commission from 1988 to 1994, including three years as chairman, and operated a management program for a 100,000-acre forest in northern Washington County.

Gadzik also served on the Maine Environmental Priorities Project and the Department of Environmental Protection’s planning office’s Wetlands Task Force.

Harris will oversee the Division of Administrative Services of the Conservation Department, which has an annual budget of $27 million with 300 year-round and 300 seasonal employees.

As director of the state Geological Survey, Marvinney will serve as the state’s geologist. He has worked with the department for eight years, directing the geologic mapping program.

Morrison will direct the Bureau of Public Lands programs, including management of 482,000 acres of state-owned lands.