Parks Division Administrator Bumped Up To Game And Parks Deputy Director

       The head of the parks division at Nebraska Game and Parks has been picked as the agency’s deputy director. 

     Jim Swenson fills a vacancy created when Tim McCoy was promoted to director after the retirement of Jim Douglas. Bob Bergholz, an assistant parks administrator, will be the interim administrator. Both men start their new jobs next Monday.

     McCoy says Swenson is passionate about the state’s resources and giving residents and visitors opportunities to make memories in the outdoors and brings a forward looking and positive culture of collaboration to achieve the agency’s mission. 

      Swenson agrees that serving the public and fostering the diverse outdoor recreation opportunities that highlight Nebraska’s great resources is his passion and he’s grateful for the chance to do that from his new position. 

      Swenson has been parks division administrator since 2014, but first joined Game and Parks as a seasonal employee in the parks and resource services division nearly four decades ago in 1983. 

     His first full-time post came 3 years later as superintendent of the Enders Reservoir State Recreation Area. Swenson eventually became eastern region park manager before becoming administrator of the division that welcomes visitors to the state parks.

      A Nebraska native from Oakland, he holds a bachelor’s degree in natural resources and wildlife management from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.