The state land department’s chief of enforcement is resigning from his position after only six months on the job.

Thomas “Tommy” Friel’s last day as chief of the Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement for the Department of Land and Natural Resource will be Monday.

DLNR Chair Suzanne Case accepted Friel’s resignation and applauded his efforts while in the position, a DLNR statement said.

Friel, who has nearly three decades in state and federal law enforcement leadership roles, was named chief of DOCARE in December. Previously, he had served with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Law Enforcement, Pacific Island Division, for more than two decades.

Case credited Friel with focusing on resource violations and on “DOCARE officers not only as enforcers of Hawaii’s laws and rules, but also as protectors of our precious natural and cultural resources.”

She said under Friel’s leadership “the division supported stepped-up law enforcement presence and activities in the hugely popular Napali Coast State Wilderness Park.” In addition, he “undertook internal reviews of operations, and led DoCARE’s investigations of natural resource violations.”