Kentucky's wildlife agency has a new top leader whose credentials include decades of conservation work.
Gregory Johnson of Lexington was chosen Friday by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources Commission.
The 58-year-old Johnson is a longtime hunter and angler.
He retired in 2011 after more than 30 years with the federal Agriculture Department, mostly with the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
His selection as commissioner caps a half-year search for a replacement for Jonathan Gassett, who resigned last September amid an ethics investigation.
The Executive Branch Ethics Commission recently fined Gassett $7,500 for nine counts of ethics violations. Those included ordering state workers to pump out his flooded basement and using the state's contract with FedEx to ship the skin of an alligator he had killed to a taxidermist.