New conservation agent assigned to Vernon County

Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Shawn Pennington, 35, transferred from Howell County. Mo., to assume his role as the Missouri Department of Conservation's Vernon County Agent. Pennington joins Larry Abraham, giving the county two agents to assist the public and protect the county's resources.

By Rusty Murry

Nevada Daily Mail

A six-year veteran of the Missouri Department of Conservation's Protection Division, Shawn Pennington, 35, transferred from Howell County to Vernon County just a week and a half ago.

Pennington, a native of central Kansas, brings with him an extensive background in wildlife law enforcement and several years of regular law enforcement experience. In his spare time, he enjoys hunting, fishing and golf and will make his home in Nevada with his 2-year-old daughter Kate and his wife Peggy, who will be teaching in Nevada's elementary school gifted program.

After graduating from college with a resource management major and criminal justice minor, Pennington went to work as a conservation agent in Kansas. He left that position to work both in uniform and undercover in regular law enforcement.

He said he could see that, "there wasn't a long term future in that," so he returned to duty as a game warden. Discovering an opportunity to work here, he entered the six month agent's training program in Jefferson City and went to work as an agent based in West Plains, Mo.

Still getting settled in, Pennington said, "Right now, I'm trying to meet everybody and get to know folks in the community." He said he already feels comfortable here because, he grew up in a similar area.

Working from his home, like all agents -- and being limited to a 40-hour week that must be spread out over seven days -- makes it difficult for Pennington and long time county agent Larry Abraham to spend a lot of time toward law enforcement on top of all the other administrative, service, and community duties they have.

But some of those duties are the ones Pennington enjoys most. As the Conservation Department's official representative for all its interests and activities in the county, Pennington enjoys meeting "the farmers the landowners, the hunters and the fishermen."

In fact, he said, "we need the cooperation of the general public to be able to know where to spend our time."

And the kids, he really enjoys working with kids in the hunter education program. He likes to see kids that are just starting out and "trying to lead them down the right path and give them that guidance, because there are so many things these days that compete with outdoor activities."

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