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Doug Leier: Game wardens meet the challenges of increased resource demands during the pandemic
People flocked to the outdoors, and the job of game wardens to enforce game and fish rules and regulations was more important than ever.
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Doug Leier | ×
Between Sept. 1, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2020, game wardens made 11,937 contacts and wrote 1,061 citations.
Photo/ North Dakota Game and Fish Department
The challenges of the past year have impacted all jobs and North Dakota game wardens were no different. In a similar way to how virtual conferences and online shopping were suddenly more popular than ever due to the reduced contact and concentration, so too was time outdoors. Fresh air and wide-open spaces replaced indoor concerts and sporting events in many cases.
Scott Winkelman, Game and Fish Department enforcement division chief, relates that they met the challenges without missing a beat: “From dealing with daily COVID-19 challenges, increased numbers of hunters and anglers and changes in technology, game wardens continued to do what they always do without pause, providing exceptional service to North Dakota,” he said.
Department game wardens are also husbands, wives and parents and they faced their own challenges while doing their jobs and balancing off-hour needs.
“The men and women who choose to sacrifice their weekends, holidays, season openers and family time to safeguard North Dakota’s natural resources and ensure the safety of those who recreate outdoors certainly deserve a huge thank you,” Winkelman said.
One reader – I’ll call him “Mike” because that’s his name – wrote that crossing Lake of the Woods last summer to reach the Angle by boat turned out to be an experience he’d just as soon not repeat.
One reader – I’ll call him “Mike” because that’s his name – wrote that crossing Lake of the Woods last summer to reach the Angle by boat turned out to be an experience he’d just as soon not repeat.