Indiana Conservation Officer Joe Tenbarge has been selected 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, NASBLA certified boating instructor, and field training officer.
District 6 includes Hendricks, Marion, Hancock, Shelby, Johnson, Morgan, Monroe, Brown, and Bartholomew counties.
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.