Wednesday, June 08, 2016

LDWF Seeking Agents

I see in the local fish-wrapper that the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries is seeking to hire some new Agents.  We called the Game Wardens back in the day.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries is looking for people who want to be field agents.
It's taking applications through June for up to 23 cadets. The six-month class begins in September at the Waddill Outdoor Education Center in Baton Rouge.
The Law Enforcement Division's head, Col. Joey Broussard, says they're looking for men and women who love the outdoors, want to enforce conservation laws and can make it through demanding physical and academic training.
Cadets train to enforce the state's recreational boating laws, the state and federal wildlife and fisheries laws, and general law enforcement work on the state's many wildlife management areas. The academy also covers general law enforcement training required for all state law enforcement officers, plus search and rescue procedures.
I worked closely with the game wardens in Natchitoches Parish when I was a Parole Officer.  In the rural parishes of Louisiana, everyone either hunts, fishes, or traps, and often does all three.  Some of my better stories include the guys I called "Possum Cops" as the main protagonists.  Matter of fact, one of them in particular asked me one night to help him root out some night hunters in the Red Dirt Preserve, just a mile or so back of my house.

We went out to my barn, got some tomato stakes, some duct tape and some bicycle reflectors.  In the space of thirty minutes, we had cobbled together a device we could stick in the ground behind a yaupon bush that looked for all the world like a deer when you put a spotlight on it.

We went out, found a likely spot near a paved road and stuck that thing in the ground.  In the space of about four hours, we arrested three different parties of poachers who couldn't stand to drive by a pair of gleaming eyes without shooting at it.

If I was a young man, I might consider signing up with the Possum Cops, but since I'm an old, decrepit fart, I'll leave it for the young'uns.

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