Ben Mohr is stepping down as executive director of the Kenai River Sportfishing Association.
Mohr’s been at the helm of the Soldotna-based sportfish advocacy group for nearly three years. Starting next year, he’ll take up a new job as a lobbyist with Mulder Company.
Mohr said he’s excited about the new energy that’s been injected into KRSA over the last several years. He said he’s leaving the organization while it has a lot of momentum.
“We’re coming up on tripling our membership numbers here soon," he said. "We’re sort of reembracing some of the roots that KRSA has in conservation projects. We recently were awarded a grant from the Exxon-Valdez Oil Spill Trustees Council to do another $3 million habitat restoration project on the river. People will see in the next four or five years.”
He said he’s also proud of KRSA’s efforts to update the Kenai River Late-Run King Salmon Management Plan at last year’s Board of Fish meeting.
"I know it’s been a controversial issue this year, but the protections that we helped get passed for the late-run king salmon here on the Kenai — that’s something that I actually really am proud of, as well," he said.
Among the more controversial parts of that update were the additional restrictions it placed on the commercial setnet fishery. KRSA said the goal was to spread out the burden of king conservation among user groups.
Before KRSA, Mohr worked as a spokesperson for the Pebble Partnership, a campaign manager for Dan Sullivan for Senate and a policy adviser to Gov. Sean Parnell.
In his new job, he’ll be in Juneau during the legislative session but will stay in Soldotna the rest of the year. The Mulder Company is run by Eldon Mulder, a KRSA board member and former state representative.
KRSA is now taking applications to fill Mohr’s position.
