Low pay, long hours cited by departing Montana game wardens

From the Helena Independent Record; Sept. 18
Over the past five years, 24 game wardens in Montana, about a third of the force, have left their jobs, and most said the long hours, relatively low pay and the inability to get away from the job for just a couple of days all played a role in their decision to leave.

"Vermont Wild" Offers Humorous Tribute to Game Wardens

Saturday, 03/05/11 8:35am

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Peter Biello

Eric Nuse was a game warden in Vermont for thirty-two years, and during that time he’s had many close-encounters with Vermont’s wildlife. Those encounters were sometimes painful, sometimes heartwarming, and often they were very funny.
Former journalist Megan Price has written a book about Nuse’s more humorous adventures in Vermont’s wilderness. It’s called Vermont Wild. She speaks about it with VPR's Peter Biello.
Learn more about Vermont Wild. 

Wildlife War Is Not Over Yet

The first game warden murdered in the US was under the employ of the Audubon Society working on Pelican Island in Florida. The latest was a Warden in my birth state of Pennsylvania. We should never forget there is a "thin green line" of dedicated folks out there protecting our wildlife from the greedy, the lazy and the criminal.

BY JOHN MESSEDER, Gettysburg Times – Nov. 22, 2010

The call went out over the radio for the officer identified as 4-16.

“Sir, there is no response from 4-1-6.”

“Please take 4-1-6, Wildlife Conservation officer David Grove, Badge Number J2038, out of service for the final time. Radio Call 4-1-6 shall be retired forever.”

Pennsylvania Wildlife Conservation Officer David L. Grove, was shot and killed at 10:38 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 11, by a man thought to have been poaching deer.

The dialog retiring Grove’s radio call identifier and badge number was recited Sunday evening, as he was interred at Green Hill Cemetery, in Waynesboro.

About 2,000 people filled the Waynesboro Senior High School auditorium Sunday afternoon for the funeral service. A lone bagpiper, WCO Jack Lucas led a detail of fellow Wildlife Conservation Officers into the auditorium, carrying Grove’s flag-draped coffin.

A childhood friend, Josh Miles recalled Grove’s deep laugh, which he described as “more like a chuckle, that came all the way down from his toes, … pounding his fist on the table, wondering if he was going to be OK.”

“I’ll never forget that laugh,” Josh said. “I never want anyone … to forget that laugh.”

Another close friend talked of taking Grove to his first ice hockey game, and making him a Pittsburgh Penguins fan.

“(Grove) love-hate relationship with the game of golf,” Tony Myers said. “It was the only time he tried to not spend too much time in the woods.”

David’s brother, Chad, in a voice broken by tears and sniffs, described the brother with whom he went to school, hunted and fished, and got into mischief, “and also the discipline that followed those (latter) events.”

After recalling his brother’s relationship of support with the children in his family, “It will be hard to watch them grow without you there,” he said to his departed brother.

WCO Kris Krebs worked with Grove in Centre County, and during his turn to talk at the funeral called him “brother officer (and) closest friend.”

The night Grove was shot, Krebs said he was waiting for dinner to be served to himself and other officers in a Denny’s restaurant when he talked with Grove by phone.

“You know, real game wardens aren’t sitting in a booth in Denny’s,” Grove told his friends.

Dinner was served, the phone call ended.

A few hours later, Grove was dead.

Grove’s pastors described the intense faith, in a life that included two years at Appalachian Bible College before he switched to become a Pennsylvania Wildlife Conservation Officer.

“It wasn’t something he did to earn money, but something he felt called to do,” said Pastor Brad Heacock.

At the end of the service, an otherwise silent audience punctuated a video of Grove’s life with sniffles and stifled coughs, and a piano accompanied “Amazing Grace.”

Gov. Ed Rendell, who had attended in silence, and was not introduced, left the auditorium quietly.

Outside, more well-wishers lined both sides of the two-mile long route from the high school to Green Hill Cemetery. The procession required nearly an hour to enter the cemetery, where Grove was saluted, words of faith were spoken, a Pa. State Police helicopter executed a flyover, and Grove’s radio call and badge number were “retired forever.”

The suspect in Grove’s killing was arrested Nov. 12. District Attorney Shawn Wagner has said he likely will seek the death penalty; killing a police officer is one of a limited number of convictions that carry that penalty in Pennsylvania.

Grove was the first Pennsylvania game warden killed in the line of duty in 95 years.

Forest Service Law Enforcement Officer Fatally Shot

This sad release from the Outdoor Wire. There is a price for the wildlife we all enjoy. For some it is much higher than others...

A USDA Forest Service Law Enforcement Officer was fatally shot Friday, March 5, at the Ocmulgee Bluff Equestrian Recreation Area on the Oconee Ranger District of the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest in Jasper County, Georgia. | For More...

And the Oscar goes to…..Aldo Leopold?!?

From the Wildife Society Blog

And the Oscar goes to…..Aldo Leopold?!?
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Yesterday at 11:41am

The Guardian describes China’s chic approach to make wildlife conservation more appealing. The lavish ceremony, complete with Chinese celebrities, prizes and Oscar-style glitz, was held again this year to honor wildlife heroes by escalating them to celebrity status. Although China has more nature reserves than any other country, they can’t compete with the ever-rising markets for endangered species. The goal of The Second China Border Wildlife Conservation Awards Ceremony was to highlight the federal employees such as the border patrol and customs police who risk their lives tracking down armed smugglers and confiscating contraband animal products. In America, we might not need to concentrate as much on tackling wildlife smugglers, but we still need to fight for publicity for the thousands of endangered species, of which only a small fraction are protected under the Endangered Species Act. I’m not sure if China’s celebrity approach will, in fact, reach a wider audience and consequently transform people’s actions but I can guarantee it’s a better strategy than posing nude (for animal rights…so they say) and becoming spokesmen for environmental issues, which they have no credibility or knowledge of, as American celebrities tend to do.

Read full story here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/26/china-endangered-species-oscars

Must Read - "Animal Investigators"

As a former Game Warden this book review really hit home. Vermont now has fewer wardens than when they hired me in 1971!

From the Wildlife Management Institute website:

Worth Reading

The worth-reading/review book for this month deals with other wildlife abuses, ranging from poaching walruses for their ivory and bears for their gall bladders to smuggling of Native Brazilian costume and ceremonial garb festooned with parts of threatened and endangered Brazilian wildlife. I wouldn't put Animal Investigators in the "really well-written" category, but the book certainly is readable, and its coverage of various areas of wildlife-related shenanigans is engrossing...

It is easy to put the blame on a lack of enforcement, and “lack” is an understatement. There are about 200 federal wildlife special agents and 3,300 state conservation officers. This compares with 12,000 FBI agents, 5,000 Drug Enforcement Administration special agents, 33,000 border patrol agents and 675,000 sworn state and local police. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has 115 wildlife inspectors serving 17 ports and 20 other locations. At each of the major ports, in the United Stats, approximately 20,000 containers arrive every day. Maybe 20 are inspected. Houston, Miami, New York, Los Angeles, Baltimore, we have a problem.
Read More >>

Third Year is the Charm

After 3 years of hard hunting and scaring or boring a lot of turkeys, I finally killed one. He came in just like they say they should and met a load of #6 Heavyshot at 22 yards. He weighed in at 17 1/2 lbs, had a 9 inch beard and a wing span of 4 feet. I don't think I'll figure up how much time and money went into this, but I do know it was worth every penny! It felt especially good doing it on my own, on public land and after a lot of effort.
While carrying him out I watched an osprey dove bombing an immature bald eagle. Throw in a pair of northern orioles and a lot of goose music and you've got a memorable day.
In 1972 when I was a warden trainee with Bill LaCount, we made the first turkey case in Vermont when a guy from New York state shot one in a field with a rifle. They had only been stocked 2 years before in Pawlet. Now we have turkeys everywhere plus nesting osprey and eagles. Who says modern wildlife management doesn't work?

NY times article on NY Enviromental Police in the city

Polluters, Beware: These Eco-Police Officers Are for Real

By MIREYA NAVARRO

Officers with the State Department of Environmental Conservation have become more prominent as awareness of pollution’s role in global warming has grown.

Time to get serious abut wildlife funding

Please take a minute and read Roy's piece published in the 1/14 edition of the Rutland Herald. Roy is the President of the VT Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs and on the steering committee of the VT Wildlife Partnership.

After you read it I hope you will join me and other serious sportsmen/conservationists and talk to your local legislators about continuing equitable support for the wildlife we love and the agency that makes sure the critters stay healthy - the VT Fish and Wildlife Dept. The division that is getting hit the hardest are the local Game Wardens. Before the latest Douglas Administration budget cuts, there were fewer Wardens than in 1971, and with the latest cuts it's going to get a lot worse.
In the last 2 1/2 years the Department has been forced to leave nearly $4 million dollars unclaimed because they did not have the state money to match the Federal dollars that we were eligible to collect. One dollar would have meant 3 additional federal dollars! Where else can you get a return on your money like that. Even the crooks on Wall St weren't doing that well.
As you can tell I'm not happy that our government is throwing desperately need money away at a time of economic free fall and climate warming stress on the environment and our wildlife.
Read and weep - then get on the phone and let Douglas and your representative and senators know what you think. Don't let them soft talk you with the old milk for babies or browse for Bambi argument. The FWD is one of the few entities in state government that makes money - 82% of their budget, but also generates nearly $29 million in sales and rooms and meals tax for the general fund. What do they get back to invest in the resource? $2.1 million budgeted, minus $800,000 already cut and more coming unless we tell them no. NO more cuts this fiscal and get going on long term, fair funding for the Department as suggested by the 2007 Legislative funding committee and advocated by the VT Wildlife Partnership.

Time to get serious about wildlife

These are extraordinarily difficult economic times. On that, all Vermonters agree. Published: January 14, 2009 ( 0)
http://www.rutlandherald.com/section/OPINION03

For more on the long term solution go to http://www.vermontwildlifepartnership.org/