Iowa’s top environmental official is on the way out. Department of Natural Resources director Paul Johnson has e-mailed workers in the agency, telling them he’s leaving the job May 11th. D-N-R spokesman Ross Harrison read the letter of explanation this morning. Harrison says Johnson misses the activities on his farm, his wife and his grandchildren.Johnson lives in Des Moines during the week, commuting back to his Decorah farm on the weekends. Harrison says Johnson also expressed concern about the legislature’s action on environmental issues. Johnson says the legislature wants him to be satisfied with the “status quo,” but he says he can’t do that.May 11th will be Johnson’s last day on the job. Johnson was a state legislator in the 1980s, and he helped craft Iowa’s groundwater protection law. In the mid-90s, he served as director of the U-S Natural Resources Conservation Service.
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