TPWD Wildlife Division Director retires after a decade with the agency 

John Silovsky, TWS member and director of the Wildlife Division at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, announced his retirement after more than a decade working for the state agency.  

Silovsky’s career with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) began in 2014, serving as the district leader of the Post Oak Savannah Wildlife District. In 2019, he was promoted to the deputy director of the Wildlife Division before being named the director in late 2020. 

Silovsky finds it difficult to describe the biggest highlight of his career, especially considering the opportunities he had to work with the diversity of Texas wildlife.  

“There’s so much work we do here that’s important,” he said. “Texas wildlife is just as diverse as the people and the landscape that make up the state, from alligators to pronghorn. Then, you tie in bears and mountain lions, bighorn sheep, nongame species—wow, what an opportunity!” 

Some of Silovsky’s priorities while leading the TPWD Wildlife Division included focusing on the strategic management of chronic wasting disease (CWD) throughout the state, increasing the public’s trust in the agency, whether traditional constituents like landowners or more urban constituencies, and helping people find access to the outdoors and outdoor recreational opportunities.  

“We’re a Wildlife Division in Texas, a largely private lands state, so really, we are in the opportunity business,” Silovsky said. “It’s important that we provide private landowners the technical guidance and tools to improve the health of their land. We have to get behind someone’s gate to be successful to effectively deliver conservation, so that requires trust with those landowners to help them meet their objectives. Conservation starts with those landowners.” 

He said that as Texas’ population continues to grow beyond 30 million, the more adaptable the division needs to be in order to be relevant to new constituencies. 

“We have so many urban constituents now, and it’s important for us to provide them with a greater understanding of the outdoor opportunities that are available to them,” he said. “The work we do to manage the natural resources must be important to them and add value to their lives. Uncovering and understanding the divides that arise within conservation due to different values, beliefs and perspectives will be key to all our success.”  

Silovsky came to TPWD with over 30 years of wildlife management experience. After receiving a Bachelor of Science in biology from Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas, Silovsky held multiple positions with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, including conservation worker, program services manager and regional public lands supervisor for 20 counties in northeast Kansas.  

Silovsky has been a TWS member since 1992. He said that every TWS meeting or conference he’s been to, whether nationally or within the Texas Chapter, has been a source of motivation. 

“Those meetings are a chance to connect, reconnect, stay in tune with what’s going on,” he said. “It’s like pushing the rejuvenation button. To see young people coming in, that’s important, and I’m so impressed with their ability to communicate and become relevant with so many different audiences.”  

In his retirement, Silovsky hopes to spend more time riding his road bike, perhaps across a new state, and he also has a lot of hunting and fishing to catch up on, he said. He hopes to pass along his love for the outdoors to his grandchildren.  

“When I think about all the work I’ve done in these last 42 some years, working to recruit people into hunting, I hope I can convince at least two of the three of them to replace me in the license buying world.”