Communication Analysis of Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Sauk Rapids

Office from information gathered in an interview with Nicholas Snavely

Submitted in partial completion of course requirements in ETS 322 Communication

Technology by Adam Liestman for Dr. James A. Nicholson on 12/3/13

Since I am an ETS major at St. Cloud State University I decided I would like to do my
interview in a field that applied to my major. With my love for the outdoors being very
important part of my life, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) office
of Sauk Rapids seemed like an obvious choice of place to conduct my communication
analysis. After doing a little research online and a phone call I came into contact with
Nicholas Snavely Assistant Area Wildlife Manager at the Sauk Rapids office. He gives
an annual presentation to St. Cloud State students on the DNR, Wildlife Habitats, and
about what is important for getting a job after graduation. So he definitely knows the
communication side of the Sauk Rapids Department of Natural Resources, along with the
statewide communication between offices and was a perfect choice to interview for my
communication analysis.

People started making efforts to conserve Minnesotas resources as early as 1876 with a
forestry association assigned with protecting the states valuable timber resources.
However those efforts failed Due to the overwhelming power of the logging industry. In
1911 the Minnesota Forest Service was established to conserve the state's forests by
promoting fire prevention and protection. The first agency created to maintain
Minnesota's resources was founded in 1931 as the Department of Conservation. When the
Department of Conservation was created, it brought together four separate state entities:
forestry, game and fish, drainage and waters, and lands and timber, while adding a
division of state parks and tourist destinations as well. In 1971 the name was changed to

the Department of Natural Resources to better reflect its broader duties and
responsibilities. There are five different divisions that make up the Minnesota DNR
Ecological and Water Resources, Enforcement, Fish and Wildlife, Forestry, and Parks
and Trails. This is the DNRs mission statement The mission of the Minnesota
Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is to work with citizens to conserve and manage
the state's natural resources, to provide outdoor recreation opportunities, and to provide
for commercial uses of natural resources in a way that creates a sustainable quality of
life. As far as the Division of Fish and Wildlife there responsibilities are to manage,
protect, and regulate the state's fish and wildlife resources, promote habitat protection and
development on public and private land.

The DNR has a very broad group that they are intending on targeting with the
information that they are trying to put across. For example some of that group can be avid
Hunters or Fishermen making sure they have the resources to be up to date with the most
recent version of rules and regulations handbook. They do this by the publishing of the
rules and regulation booklet that is available anywhere were hunting and fishing licenses
are sold or at the DNR offices themselves. Nicholas Snavely also frequently gives a
Habitat and Components Talk to High School and College students around the area to try
and better educate them on the environment and its resources, and how they manage the
wildlife which they do by managing the habitats in which they live. By using a
PowerPoint presentation to better communicate with the High School and College

students and talking about each individual slide to help them get a better grasp on the
Information Nicholas is trying to give to the students. Included in the Appendix will be
the career information handout that is given to the students during the presentation to give
students a better idea of job opportunities in the DNR and ways to help better themselves
to stand the best chance of landing the job they are applying for. For example making
sure you take the courses required by the job you are applying for, and offer to volunteer
on the job so you can have an idea of what the job consists of because first impressions
are very important. The DNR also communicates with their target audience using public
hearings. This allows the public to voice their opinion or concerns to the DNR, and gives
them a chance to work together to correct or at least address the issues the public is
having. Communication with the general public is very important for the DNR because it
gives them the opportunity to show what their plan is for a certain item and it gives the
public the chance to comment on or voice their input on the plan that they are proposing.
For example the DNR does first a public information meeting for the Shallow Lakes
Program here in Minnesota where they lay out what their plan will be for the improving
of the habitat of a certain shallow lake, which is then followed by a public hearing where
the public can then give the DNR feedback on their plan. Another way that the DNR can
communicate with their target audience is by hosting classes for the general public one
example of this is the Firearm Certification Program that the DNR puts on for young
hunters. The DNR Firearms Certification is required of anyone born after the date of
December 31, 1979 to purchase a hunting license in Minnesota. Another requirement to
be eligible to receive your Firearms Safety Certification, you must be 11 years of age or

older for the younger outdoors enthusiast. These firearms classes are offered in the spring
and fall of the year and finding the certain dates and locations of these classes can be
done on the DNRs website. The firearm safety class consists of a minimum of 12 hours
of time spent in the classroom and then time out in the field which consists of the safe
handling of firearms and the hunter responsibilities. The field experience allows students
of the program to learn and properly demonstrate the proper ways of safety in hunting
and the safe ways of handling firearms. This also includes the actual shooting of a real
firearm. For older children ages 11 17 there is another option of an on-line course as a
program. It provides basic the information for youth who are interested in learning about
hunting, as well an online version of the 12-hour classroom course. There are still the
required field days and they are scheduled throughout the year. By doing this the DNR is
able to reach out and get the younger audience out in the outdoors at an early age to help
them enjoy a lifetime of the outdoors. By doing this they can then go out and introduce
someone else to the outdoors and the outdoors spread by word of mouth.

The DNR has a variety of ways to hear the feedback some of which are by handing out
questioners, verbal feedback during the comment section of the hearings, and online
surveys. At the end of the public hearing there is a comment portion where they listen to
the concerns of the public. A lot of the time that the public voices its concern at the
hearing it is a member of the public not totally understanding what the message is that the
DNR is trying to send, so it gives them the opportunity to better explain what the

meaning is behind what they are attempting to do with whatever the project is. Another
way to receive feedback is by handing out questioners to the public to fill out. These
consist of various questions that the public can then give their opinion on which in turn
gets returned to the DNR so they can then use them to evaluate their plans moving
forward. The DNR also has online surveys on their website for the general public to fill
out all in an effort for them to receive feedback on the issues that they are currently
addressing. By law they are required to put the word out about these public hearings and
the information hearings in the local newspapers usually about 30 to 60 days prior to the
hearing so that the public is well informed when and where the event will be held. The
DNR can also receive feedback by the public citizen that stops by the office to ask a
question. Email is also a very important part as far as receiving feedback is concerned.
One of the most common questions they receive is Where am I able to Hunt? email is a
very easy way to send the answer the person asking the question is looking for. With
Minnesota's 1,300 Wildlife Management Areas which are wetlands, uplands, or woods
owned and managed for wildlife by the Department of Natural Resources. Hunting is
open to the public during regular seasons. Along with the 3 million acres encompassed by
Minnesota's 56 state forests which hold game such as moose, deer, and bear. Except in a
few portions, these areas are entirely open to public hunting. Portions of Minnesota's
eight national wildlife refuges are also open to hunting. Restrictions to hunting these
areas are noted in the back section of the DNR Hunting handout booklet. The easiest way
to find out if the land that the individual is looking for is public or private land is to look
on a map. Maps help the public to tell who owns that particular section of land, where

that section of lands property lines begin and end, and sometimes the land topography
helping the hunter to be able to pre plan spots to hunt.

When employees are out working in the field cell phones are used to communicate with
those employees. They are standard flip phones that are provided for work phones, which
are available to all the employees that will be out in the field. However some offices in
St. Paul have some of their employees use smart phones but that is generally for the
higher ups to use. Also used on occasions are radios, during controlled burns they are
used to communicate with the fire departments on hand at the burn site in the case that
something would go wrong it provides a direct line of contact with those fire fighters.
They also make it much easier to stay in contact with the fire departments on site instead
of consistently having to call them.

Email is a major part of the communication process for the office; its used daily to
communicate with different people on staff or not on staff, because the public is able to
email questions or concerns to the employees. It helps employees stay on task with the
number of different projects which they have been assigned at that particular point in
time. Because staff members can look what is needed for any certain project whenever
they need, also it makes it possible to state questions or concerns with the task that
someone on staff may have and the head of the task can respond back and give further

directions. It also provides a paper trail for them, if at a later date something needs to be
looked up it can be easily done by using a quick find search and it will pull up all the
emails from that particular subject that are in the archive. Throughout the year email
comes in handy due to the fact that they receive emails from the public about wildlife
since a lot of the questions over lap it saves a lot of time by finding previous emails that
were sent regarding that topic and modifying them to fit that certain scenario, saving time
not having to form a completely new document to be sent out. Email is also handy for
communicating with other staff if it is a topic that is not urgent the email can be sent and
the receiver of the message can respond to the email when he or she finds fitting.

The computers that are used at the office have the full suite of Microsoft Office available
to them to use when they need it. Some of the programs included on Microsoft Office are
Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft PowerPoint. Those
are just a few of the operating systems available to be used for the office on their
computers. The computers also use Adobe Flash making it possible to view some of the
documents or interactive documents. They have internet access available to them as well
in case anything may need to be looked up online, this makes it easier to find answers to
questions people may have or just to look up any type of information they may need. The
computers make it possible to be much more organized as well by not having to have a
paper copy of everything making it a lot less cluttered, by saving documents on the

computers hard drive it makes it possible to reduce some of the space that is needed to
store all the documents.

As far as advertising goes the DNR uses a few different routes to try and get their
communicated message across. One of these methods being handouts that are given out
to people to be able to look over and have a better idea of whatever the topic it is that
they are interested in. These handouts are made easily accessible and a lot of the
information in these handouts can also be found on the DNRs website. There are a
couple of examples of these handouts that are included in the appendix. If any further
information is desired the DNR website is also a great place to look into these topics with
further information on various questions. And if you cant find the answer there you will
be able to look up someone to get in contact with who will have the answer for you.
Another example of advertising is a hand out that Nicholas Snavely created due to the
fact that one of the most common questions asked is where can I hunt? the pamphlet he
created list all the available public lands such as State forests, and Wildlife Refuges with
web links listed to give directions on how to find these certain areas. Combined with
Bing maps the hunter can more easily find the area they are looking for and even do a
little research on the areas topography with Bing maps ability for you to zoom in far
enough to easily see certain land marks and structures.

Communication within the office is generally done by person due to the fact that all the
offices are in a close proximity to one another. And face to face communication is the
best form of communication because of the ability for the sender of the message to
receive instant feedback from the receiver of the message, and is able to continue the
communication process by responding to the feedback that they received. Although there
is some occasional communication by phone in the office one example being that
someone occasionally comes to the front desk and asks the Office Administrative
Specialist either a question that needs Nicholas Snavelys answer or just asks to speak to
him and she phones Nicholas Snavely in his office and notifies him. There is also
communication done by email within the office if the issue is not something that needs an
immediate response and can be taken care of once the person the email was sent to next
check their email. However there are occasions when there is some communication by
email when the sender needs a fairly speedy response. The receiver of the email has the
time to look up the answer to the email by the time he or she who sent the email gets to
the office of the receiver of the email, or this gives them time to research the topic that
was sent a little bit and come back with questions of their own once they reach the office
for a response to the originally sent email.

The set policy for obtaining office supplies for the office is to inform the Office
Administrative Specialist of what is needed in the office at that particular time. They then
order the products that are needed for whoever requested them, there is generally a very

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short wait time for the supplies to come in usually the process takes one to two days and
they get their supplies they requested. The ordering is all done through contracts that the
DNR has with these certain companies, the Office Administrative Specialist has a book
that they look through to see what companies the requested materials are contracted with
and then places the order with these certain companies.

There is a set emergency protocol for the office that is posted in the front area of the
building right by the printer which is in a highly traveled portion of the building. The
emergency protocol is also sent out by email to all the staff at that certain office of the
DNR on how to handle certain situations. The Sauk Rapids office does not have a check
in process like the St. Paul office does were if you want to proceed past the front desk
you need to check in and have a badge with you to go past the front desk. The regional
level is a little more relaxed then the St. Paul level with security for the good reason that
at the St. Paul location they have to deal with some of the more controversial issues from
time to time then are done on the regional level. Some of the regional offices to have
more security like the St. Paul location however but that is based on the offices locations
and any issues they may have had in the past, the Sauk Rapids office however does not
have that. There is also the ability for the people in the front staff to do a quick
conference call to all the staff in the building to inform them of what is going on. A mass
email is another way that people can be alerted since they can see it pop up and help with
what is going on. One of the main concerns is if the case would arise where someone

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would become belligerent up front on what to do, however most of the visitors are very
friendly.

Communication with some of the larger offices in the DNR system is usually very easy
because the staff at the larger offices is easily accessible on the day to day basis. Most of
that communication is done by calling the intended person that is trying to be reached at
their office. Email is also a nice way to communicate with the larger offices since most of
the employees check their email quite often, and can respond in a fairly quick time frame.
Communication with these offices can also be done with the other offices by face to face
if they are there in person for any certain reason that might arise to be on sight at that
office.

There are two meeting rooms that are used in the office one that seats around 30 people
that is usually used for larger groups of people that need to meet together. There is also a
lunch room that is occasionally blocked off and used for a meeting room that seats about
eight to ten people comfortably that is about the size of two offices put together. There is
also added space that is available up in the front of the building, but that will be going
away shortly because they are adding another employee and will be installing more walls
to make a room for them and decreasing there available meeting room space.

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There are a few different company vehicles that are used at the Sauk Rapids DNR office
such as trucks and pool vehicles. The pool vehicles are the more efficient type of vehicle,
better on gas mileage. Each division of the Department of Natural Resources is assigned
their own vehicles to use within their division of the DNR. In the case that the division is
short a vehicle for that time or if someone is not assigned a company vehicle and there us
not one available for that particular time the process is to call one of the other divisions
and see if they have an extra vehicle that is available for that time frame. Vehicles are
shared within divisions to try and make it so everyone who needs a vehicle is able to use
one for the time that they are in need of one. There is a process for checking these
vehicles out for use. The pool vehicle has an online outlook calendar that is used to check
the available times the pool vehicle is available. A reservation can be made on the
outlook calendar of the amount of time that the pool vehicle will be in use, and once that
time comes for it to be used the keys are kept at the front desk and can be picked up when
it is time for the vehicle to be used. Once done using the vehicle the miles have to be
documented so that it is known how much the vehicle was used by the person that had the
vehicle checked out. Once the vehicle mileage has been documented they use the mileage
to figure out the cost which is then divided between the divisions according to the usage
of the vehicle by the certain divisions.

The protocol for the asking of time of tends to vary from office to office and from
supervisor to supervisor. The general rule of thumb is to try and give the supervisor a one

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month notice of the day or days that will be requested off, so that they can approve or
disapprove of that particular request. The communicating of an ask off request is
generally done by sending the supervisor an email or a written letter, so they can see the
ask off and a written reminder of it however it can also be communicated in person.

Communicating of feedback to higher ups is a very important thing to have in the

business world, the easiest way for this communication to be done is in person or face to
face communication which provides both the sender and receiver the ability to receive
instant feedback on the situation at hand. Another way this is done at the Sauk Rapids
office is by sending out online surveys to employees that they can fill out and then return
to the supervisors so they can review the information that they have received. One
example of this recently was that the supervisors of the office sent out a survey on the
question of cultural respect and how the employees feel when asked that question. The
supervisors then take that information that they received from the survey and analyze the
information and then bring their findings to usually the next set of regional office
meetings.

In conclusion, after the interview process at the Sauk Rapids Department of Natural
Resources office I have realized that there is a lot more communication taking place then
first appears. Communication is a major key to keeping business moving and keeping

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everything in line as desired. Communication is also a major part of the office when it
comes to dealing with the public which they do a lot. If things are not properly
communicated to the public they will have concerns and comments that can be time
consuming and could have been avoided had they just been properly communicated the
first time. Especially during the public hearings that the DNR hosts communication is
key, presenting in front of large groups with many different views on the topic being
discussed. The comment section at the end of the public hearing is also very important
that way you give the public the chance to voice their concerns or comments, that way
they hopefully dont leave with any concerns or questions. I would like to thank Nicholas
Snavely for taking time out to help me with this project, I Definitely learned a lot about
the communication at the Sauk Rapids Department of Natural Resources office.

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Appendix
Image 1 is a PowerPoint slide from Nicholas Snavelys Habitats Talk.

Example 2 is a state water trail guide on the Sauk River included with the paper.
Example 3 is a copy of Nicholas Snavelys Career information Handout
Example 4 is a Copy of the 2011 Job opportunities posting
Example 5 is a Firewood Alert Pamphlet