Criswell named Southcentral region PGC commissioner

HUNTINGDON - Pennsylvania Game Commission Executive Director Carl G. Roe has announced that Robert Criswell has been appointed as the new region director for the agency's Southcentral Regional Office in Huntingdon, Huntingdon County. Criswell fills the vacancy created when Donald C. Parr Jr. retired on June 29.

As regional director, Criswell will be responsible for all Game Commission information and education programs and law enforcement activities in the agency's 11- county Southcentral Region. He also will continue to oversee the habitat improvement projects and all other land management activities on more than 210,000 acres of State Game Lands in the region.

Criswell became a Game Commission Wildlife Conservation Officer trainee in the 19th Class of the Ross Leffler School of Conservation. Upon graduation in 1986, he was assigned to serve as a Wildlife Conservation Officer (WCO) in Crawford County. He subsequently transferred to Huntingdon County as a WCO, and then assumed the Land Management Group Supervisor position there.

In 1997, Criswell was promoted to Southcentral Region Land Management Supervisor.

A graduate of Chestnut Ridge High School in Fishertown, Bedford County, Criswell earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Clarion University in 1975, and a bachelor's degree in secondary education from the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown in 1982.

Criswell's numerous conservation affiliations include the Pennsylvania Chapter of The Wildlife Society; the Raystown Chapter of Ducks Unlimited; the Ornithological Technical Committee and Steering Committee of the Pennsylvania Biological Survey; Juniata Watershed Conservation Action Plan Committee; and the County Natural Heritage Inventory committees. He also is a member of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Fisheries Society and the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists

An accomplished writer and photographer, Criswell has written articles for a number of outdoors publications, including the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission's Pennsylvania Angler and Boater magazine, and his photographs have been widely used, including in the Game Commission's annual calendar.

Criswell and his wife, Kathy, currently reside in Huntingdon. They have two children.

The agency's Southcentral Region is comprised of: Adams, Bedford, Blair, Cumberland, Franklin, Fulton, Huntingdon, Juniata, Mifflin, Perry and Snyder counties. The office is at 8627 William Penn Highway in Huntingdon. The phone number is 814-643-1831.