On the hunt ... for game wardens

HELENA, Mont. (AP) - Wanted: Montana game wardens.

Must be willing to work evenings and weekends, especially during hunting season, and be on call 24/7. Job includes confronting armed suspects, investigating boat crashes, searching mountains for poachers, chasing moose through cemeteries and tranquilizing bears and mountain lions.

Must know state, tribal and federal regulations inside and out, as well as have an extensive understanding of sociology, psychology and conflict management resolution. Must be a straight shooter, figuratively and literally, with a college degree.

Pay is $12.65 per hour for trainees. Starting annual salary for a full-time permanent position is $36,670, or $17.62 per hour - if you somehow manage to work only 40 hours per week.

The low pay, long hours and decreased family time was enough for Kevin Cook to leave his position last July as one of three game wardens stationed in Helena and become a Montana Highway Patrolman. Cook said being a game warden was both challenging and rewarding for him and he worked with people "second to none." Yet he's one of 24 wardens -about one-third of the force -who have either retired or resigned in the past five years.

"With most law enforcement positions, officers work schedules where they are allowed days off and are not subject to job-related tasks or interruptions," Cook said. "However, game wardens are required to be in an on-call status 24/7.

"This means that even when game wardens have a 'day off,' they are still more than likely answering job-related phone calls or responding to wildlife incidents or emergencies, boat crashes, nuisance bears or poachings in progress ... Everybody needs a day or two when they can completely unplug from work and just relax, but unfortunately for wardens, those days are incredibly few and far between."

He adds that wardens receive no additional compensation for this type of schedule, unlike many other law enforcement agencies.

They're also among the lowest paid law enforcement officers in Montana. For example, starting pay for the highway patrol is $42,000 annually, or $20.23 per hour. A new Helena police officer earns $43,000 per year, or $20.67 per hour.

"We've lost some officers to other law enforcement agencies," said Jim Kropp, FWP chief of law enforcement, adding that they're down six wardens - four field positions and two trainees - across Montana as well as the warden training position. "Labor Day weekend was tough; you had hunting seasons opening, and it was kind of the last blowout weekend for boaters, so our wardens were kept hopping."

The FWP law enforcement bureau employs 113 people, with 75 being game wardens. Each year, they're also authorized to hire two trainees, who are college students working toward bachelor degrees but pair with game wardens to learn the ropes. Once they graduate, they can be hired by FWP for a one-year probationary period. During that time, they're also required to attend the Montana Law Enforcement Academy for a three-month stint.

FWP has been under a hiring freeze for the past year, but last week Kropp received permission to advertise nationally for the four wardens, and next spring will seek two new trainees. However, those new wardens probably won't be in the field until after hunting season, said Quinton Nyman, executive director of Montana Public Employees Association, the union representing game wardens.

"With hiring, recruiting and training, it will be January or February before you can even have those people on the ground moving," Nyman said. "They're supposed to be exempt from vacancy savings, but the agency has chosen not to have a full cadre of officers.

"Those guys are one of the few law enforcement groups where just about every client they encounter is carrying a gun that's loaded, and in a lot of cases they've been drinking. It's a tough job."

Kropp added that for those reasons and others, they try not to send new wardens into the field during hunting season.

"In terms of law enforcement, it's one of the most dangerous jobs in America," Kropp said.

Helena-based Warden Dave Loewen is living the reality of being short staffed. Three wardens typically operate out of the Helena office, but since Cook left in July and Mike Ottman retired in August, Loewen has been flying solo most of the time. His territory ranges from the Continental Divide to the top of the Big Belt Mountains, and from Wolf Creek south to Jefferson City.

His work recently included investigating a boat crash on Hauser Lake in which a man was killed by a boat propeller at 11 p.m. on a Friday night; setting up and checking on multiple traps where nuisance bears are getting too close to houses; and trying to wrap up ongoing investigations into poaching allegations, as well as doing water safety and regular patrols.

"I'm just taking it day by day," Loewen said. "I have a trainee helping out, but that complicates things a little bit since you need to show them how to do the job and let them try it on their own. If they make a mistake, you go back and do it again. And again sometimes. It can slow you down because you have to explain everything.

"But my thought is that I owe it to the public to do a good job for the law-abiding citizens out there enjoying public hunting with their families. And I enjoy it."

Ben Lamb, the acting director for the Montana Wildlife Federation, said the shortage of wardens going into the hunting season is a "huge concern" for his organization.

"It's a crying shame that those guys are asked to do so much work for so little - those guys get shot at, for Christ's sake," Lamb said. "One of the biggest problems for hunters today is poaching. We have an amazing resource we've spent 100 years building and refining, and now we're in the position that the people we entrust to enforce those laws are kind of beat down.

"If you can find seven people to fill those positions I would be shocked. You have 75 wardens for 56 counties, and some of their patrol areas are the size of Rhode Island. They usually patrol alone, often in remote areas, and how do you ensure they have the backup they need?"

Loewen said they recently filled one of the warden vacancies in his office, but she's a veteran who has to put in two weeks of military duty, so she won't actually begin work until early October. That leaves her about three weeks before the general big game season opener to get to know the district.

"So there will be another body here," Loewen said. "The only down side is she is brand new, coming off of her trainee period and needs to get to know the area quickly. That will take some of the pressure off, but there's still plenty of work to do."

Ron Aasheim, FWP spokesman, said FWP administrators anticipated a lot of retirements in the past five years in the game warden force, as well as throughout the agency, due to the aging population of long-time employees. While the wardens' resignations are troubling, Aasheim added that other FWP departments, as well as state agencies, also are seeing employees leave to take higher paying jobs in the public or private sectors.

"The agency absolutely is interested and concerned about keeping a full staff of field wardens employed," Aasheim said. "Jim (Kropp) is aggressively advertising and pursuing quality people, but it's tough to get them.

"We're seeing throughout the department that we're getting fewer candidates for positions we have and less qualified candidates."

Loewen said that until the positions are filled, he'll continue to prioritize calls and reach out to other law enforcement agencies for help.

"They've been fabulous. The sheriff's office will pick up the slack when they can, and the BLM and Forest Service assist me when they can," Loewen said. "I'm not ignoring anything, but some things get put on the back burner."