Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department Commissioner Chris Herrick. Photo courtesy of Vermont Fish & Wildlife DepartmentVermont Fish & Wildlife Commissioner Chris Herrick plans to step down at the end of the month from the department’s top post to take a lead role managing emergencies at the Vermont Agency of Transportation. Andrea Shortsleeve, a habitat biologist who works in the Fish & Wildlife Department’s private lands program, is set to take Herrick’s place as interim commissioner on Dec. 1, marking the first time a woman has led the department in its history. Shortsleeve is “really a habitat expert by training” and spent 10 years with the U.S. Forest Service before joining the department, according to Julie Moore, secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources, the umbrella agency that includes fish and wildlife. Moore said Herrick made her aware of his plans to leave the department at the beginning of November and told her “it felt a bit like an opportunity to go home” because of his background in emergency management. Herrick — who spent most of his career in emergency services until 2021, when his tenure at the wildlife department began — told VTDigger the new position takes him “back to my roots.” Previously, he served as the state’s hazardous materials chief, the director of Vermont Emergency Management, deputy commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, and as a ski patroller and emergency medical technician, he said. In 2023, during Vermont’s devastating summer flooding, Herrick managed the state’s emergency operations center when the sitting emergency manager had a conflict. It was harder, he said, to not be in an emergency management role during the second round a year later.Andrea Shortsleeve. Photo courtesy of Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department“This past year when we had flooding, I was watching everybody else running around helping, and I was not doing anything,” he said. “I didn’t feel good about that.”Herrick is set to serve as the director of safety and emergency management at the Agency of Transportation. There, he’ll oversee emergencies that range from hazardous material spills to post-disaster roadway closures to threats to infrastructure, including airports, railways and roads.As commissioner of the fish and wildlife department, Herrick has been caught in the middle of contentious debates between hunters and animal protection advocates about how to manage the state’s wildlife, and he was the subject of an ethics complaint filed by Protect Our Wildlife, an animal welfare advocacy group. While wildlife groups frequently criticized Herrick, the commissioner said he tried to include them. He oversaw the implementation of new best management practices for trapping — though lawmakers and advocates said the new rules fell short. READ MORE Though the debates reached a fever pitch over the last few years, Herrick said it didn’t have anything to do with his decision to step down. “Frankly, I’m happy that people do voice their opinions,” he said. “Sometimes it gets a little over the top, but I never took it personally. I’m just glad people are engaged.”Herrick named the trapping rule changes among the accomplishments he was most proud of during his time at the department, along with habitat restoration and connection projects, floodplain restoration and protecting endangered species. Gov. Phil Scott appoints department commissioners and could take up to a year to appoint Herrick’s replacement, Moore said, though she doubts the process would take that long.  Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont fish and wildlife commissioner departs for emergency transportation post.