Tenbarge
Indiana Conservation Officer Joe Tenbarge has been selected by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources as the 2021 District 6 Officer of the Year.
Tenbarge is assigned to Brown County and has been a conservation officer since 2011.
In addition to his normal duties as a field officer, he has served as a public safety diver, background investigator, sonar operator, standard field sobriety test instructor, National Association of State Boating Law Administrators-certified boating instructor, and field training officer.
The district award puts Tenbarge in the running for the Pitzer Award, which is given to the top overall conservation officer in the state and is selected from the 10 district award winners.
The Pitzer Award is named after Conservation Officer James D. Pitzer, who was fatally shot while investigating illegal hunting activity on Jan. 2, 1961, in Jay County.
District 6 includes Hendricks, Marion, Hancock, Shelby, Johnson, Morgan, Monroe, Brown, and Bartholomew counties.
