The Trump administration is abruptly ending a decades-long program that trained national wildlife refuge managers with law enforcement capabilities to police often remote spots of public land. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced to employees on Sept. 21 that refuge managers who were also trained to police the area would
no longer be able to act in any enforcement capacity and would be stripped of their firearm, according to an internal FWS email.

Sources said the decision came as a shock to many of the people who have worked in the position, known as dual-function officers who spent decades in the role at their respective refuges. Critics argued it would lead to new violations in the refuges. “It means there will be lots of violations, wildlife violations as in over-bagged hunting areas, damaged fences, signs, roads and all kinds of damage to the environment. If there is no one there to enforce the law, that would spread like wildfire,” said Kim Hanson, who retired from FWS in 2008 after more than 30 years at the agency. The nation has 562 national wildlife refuges spread across 20.6 million acres of public land. Unlike national parks, mining, drilling, hunting and farming are all regulated activities on certain refuges. "Our dual-function officers were an integral aspect of refuge management during a time that allowed for multiple functions within a single position," stated the memo outlining the change. "In the 21st Century the threats facing visitors and wildlife are more complex than ever. Protection of the National Wildlife Refuge System now requires a full-time officer corps that combines a concentrated effort on conservation protection, traditional policing and emergency first response to protect, serve and educate the public and Service staff.”

Hanson for years woke up as early as 4 a.m. to make sure wildfowl hunters on the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge didn’t accidentally kill protected animals or use more bullets than they were allotted. He was there to both oversee the refuge and police land users to make sure they hunted safely and legally in a role used for decades by the Interior Department. It was a role he said worked well because he knew the refuge and its regulations better than anyone. The program also didn’t cost the FWS any additional money, as dual-officers were not paid for their law enforcement role but were trained just as much as a full-time officer and had to undergo classes annually.

Under the new plan, he worries that full-time officers won't be able to cover all the refuges that need policing and that the remaining refuge managers will now have to sit back and witness any violations they see. “They just have to watch. There is nothing they can do. They can see the violation and their hands are tied,” he said.
There are 230 full-time law enforcement officers policing refuges and FWS officials say they plan to replace the vacant dual-officer positions with 15 full-time officers in 2019 as a way to modernize the enforcement ranks and save costs. FWS says the change will take away the burden of refuge managers having to perform law enforcement duties.

“Federal Wildlife Officers are expected to perform the same full range of dangerous duties that all uniformed police officers perform. This includes conducting search warrants, eradicating marijuana grows, providing border security, arrest violent offenders and drug dealers; and assist local and state police with persons under the influence drugs and narcotics such as fentanyl and opioids,” according to an FWS spokesperson.“Dual-function officers carried out their full-time non-law enforcement duties as well as conducted law enforcement on a part-time basis. They will now be enabled to focus fully on their full-time duties within the Refuge System.” But instead of spreading relief, dual-officer veterans said the decision will likely do more harm than good. Dozens of refuges in the short-term, they say, will now not have police, and in the long-run many of those refuges will only see a law enforcement presence intermittently.

The move comes as Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has increased access for more hunters and anglers. In early September, he announced that 251,000 new acres on refuge lands would be open to hunting or fishing. By the 2018-2019 hunting season, 377 refuges will allow hunting and 312 will allow fishing. Critics say the rollback of law enforcement officers in any capacity seems like odd timing. “It doesn’t make any sense,” said Lloyd Jones, who retired from the FWS in 2013 after decades of working at multiple refuges across South Dakota as a dual-officer. “The dual functions that have been there for decades have been extremely effective in compliance, and now it’s being taken off the table almost overnight," Jones said. Jones spent a lot of his time at refuges in North Dakota policing neighbors to make sure they were not draining the wetlands on or near the public land. He doesn’t doubt that without the dual-officers, owners will take advantage of the opportunity to break their easements and drain the wetlands, which could lead to negative environmental impacts for waterfowl and migratory birds that breed there.

“Once they realize there is going to be void in that law enforcement presence, there is going to be a tremendous impact — that’s a given. That’s an absolute,” he said. But Jones’s biggest fear is what could happen to the remaining refuge managers who are now stripped of their law enforcement tools but still feel compelled to protect the lands they work on. “My biggest fear is that some refuge person, a biologist or manager, is going to respond or react to a situation and either themselves or the public may get hurt,” he said. “A refuge person isn’t simply going to turn their back on some kind of a situation. They will want to do something about it. And without law enforcement authority or being equipped, they are not only putting the public in danger, they are putting themselves in danger,” Jones said.

Minus 1 for the bunny cops.

Call a state game warden like the rest of us NON GOVERMENT FOLKS usually do??? Taking away a gun from a government worker is ALWAYS accompanied by child-like screeching and hyperventilating tantrums.

Hint,

Fire all the refuge workers

"Hanson for years woke up as early as 4 a.m. to make sure wildfowl hunters on the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge didn’t accidentally kill protected animals or use more bullets than they were allotted."

Can any of you from the left coast tell me how many bullets you were allotted for your duck hunts?

LOL

What left wing rag did you copy and paste that from?

I saw that, too.

More winning. MAGA!

They never did anything but ride around and get paid to write people tickets for stupid stuff anyway. What are they gonna do now?

GREAT! one less gestapo outfit!

To discourage sky busting, many NWR's in California limit hunters to 25 steel shells (not bullets) in the field at any one time.

Exactamundo!

The Campfire Commies will be by shortly to tell us how this is the end of the world as they know it.

Road trip for Booner coyotes!

No kidding! I wonder if that'll include the CMR....

next turn over the refuge lands to state control as it should be.

For the love of God, who wants to invest the time and effort it takes to set up for an early morning duck hunt just to have 3 minutes of shooting?

I went lead free for all my duck hunting. Nothing but Barnes ttsx's for me.

Here's a link:

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-e...-key-law-enforcement-program-at-wildlife

"Sky busting". Now that is really stuid. I've never heard the term and could care less how much ammo a duck hunter carries.

That has been my observation as well. We have a refuge here and some family land adjoins part of it. These people have been ridiculous in their Ninja attitudes.

More winning.

More background information would be good. My first reaction is, that this is to remove a bunch of people from the LEO retirement system who shouldn't be eligible in the first place. Hell, I don't think managers (desk jockeys) in any of the Law Enforcement agencies should be eligible for LEO retirement, that should only be for field agents.

I loved this:
The program also didn’t cost the FWS any additional money, as dual-officers were not paid for their law enforcement role but were trained just as much as a full-time officer and had to undergo classes annually.

That training, and maintenance thereof, as well as all the LEO gear associated with it costs some serious money.

I have only heard about badge-heavy refuge LE. No personal experience.

Sounds like now they will ride around and get paid to not write tickets.

I didn't interpret the position going away, just the law enforcement power.

These are the guys who sit on the extreme edge of refuge around here right next to a railroad right of way. There is about a 100yd section of refuge land that the people riding jeeps and sidexsides have to cut through to get to a paved road and onother section on the side of a brige that is refuge. These jackazzes pull their truck down between the berms by the bridge and write dui's and wilderness truspass tickets on fall weekends. This is not an area there is any wildlife in other than a few lizards and some rabbits. Other than old salt cedar trees there is no vegetation. Yet these [bleep] write tickets to people just out enjoying the desert.

Phugg em

Best news all damn day.

Sounds lovely.

According to the article linked above, will strip 51 employees of their dual status responsibility.... 51 employees across 562 wildlife refuges... Zero impact to more than 90% of wildlife refuges ??? ... Slow news day ??? ... If this the worst that they can dig up on Trump today, then more winning ! ... MAGA ! ! !

+1

Pretty one-sided article. Wonder what the flip side is?

This bit of info really screws up the planned trophy coyote hunt!

You can sit on the edge and call to your hearts content.

And it works.

Use more bullets than they are allotted? No thank you

No officer these are pills.

I've been around a refuge or two and I still don't know what this news is supposed to mean.

Near as I can tell, it means that one or more Refuge Managers got badge happy with some people with connections. Easiest fix was to jerk the enforcement authority from all the part-timers. Now they can concentrate on their real job (if you want to call that a real job) instead of running around and playing 'possum sheriff all day.

The refuge fish cops around here are the craziest nazis you have ever seen. I have seen them set up roadblocks on the local bird refuge to catch hunters that don't have their shotguns in cases in the vehicles.

I got a $100+ ticket once for 'not parking between the signs' because 6 inches of my rear bumper was past the sign, and there was no place left to park.

Those jackasses are the badge heaviest idiots around. At one WMA close to where I live the new opossum cop from Iowa or some other communist country took the sign-in list and took the trouble to run the record of every single person who signed in over the weekend. If he found anyone with a felony record, he was trying to get the local feds interested in busting them for being felons possession. The local FBI told him to cool it before they ended up investigating his untimely death.

In Texas this decision has also moved the draw hunt process on the National Wildlife Refuge to the Texas Parks & Wildlife.

Ive never missed getting drawn. It was always a well kept secret, a veritable honey hole. Now, if too many people catch on I may never get drawn again. Don’t like that.

After I read it again, that is my take as well.

Sounds like some ominus dominus/cross designation bullschit was decided on once upon a time and somebody finally brought an end to it.

Still leaves the dedicated enforcement folks in place. Locally we have one officer to handle 4 widely separated properties. Takes all day just to touch the 4. Good fellow though that will follow up on information.

Who’da thunk Trump would concern himself with our happy hunting ground? Remember when the Oreo tried to shut it all down?

Had my Broke open Citori checked onetime by a newbie refuge officer. Pulled out HER litle plug checker and wanted to know where the magazine was on my rifle.

The Look on the old wardens reddening face as my buddies started busted out laugh while he was checking their stamps. He let her twsit in the wind for about two minutes while she kept looking for the magazine on my Citori "rifle".

When he was done check licenses he grabbed it away from her and handed it back to me. Could hear the ass chewing as we walked away laughing our asses off.

That's important work, almost as important as patrolling the Canadian border. Be thankful nobody was hurt and everyone went home safely at the end of the day.

Ex-Canadian border patrol agent?

There are several small Refuges that I know of that basically have a staff of one, and this was probably the reason for deputizing some of the managers to start with. The problem is that some of these guys had no business being turned loose with a badge and a gun.

Yes, yes, that is exactly what I said at the time. Glad the officer made it home safe.

Crazy part is, you couldn't even challenge the ticket. I live in Utah and the violation came in the mail from some federal district in Louisiana. If I wanted to challenge it, I had to show up in Louisiana.

It's not their fault you're too cheap to drive to Louisiana. Sheesh.

Had the very same thing happen to me at my local refuge, only I was using a Parker side by side and there was only one fish cop. I let her look at the gun for about five minutes before explaining how it worked.

They can stay at home and 'choke their chicken' which will be more than they did on the Refuge!!

Isn't there a law against that? Don't let the game cop catch ya.

This doesn't amount to crap. It just takes badges and guns away from some ill trained "officers". I was a state game warden for 30 years and carried a USFWS commission also. Any time the real USFWS agents brought any of these part timers or some timers along they were kept on a pretty short leash for fear of what they might mess up. They and their parking tickets won't be missed.

I agree.

Sounds like a bunch of ass holes that get to keep their job but not be armed at work.

AA at is finest. I have a novel full of stories concerning such activity from employees which have absolutely no qualifications. Going to take a long while to dig out the snakes in the swamp. Deep state has trickled all the way down.

It means you can sneak a few more bullets into your blind bag next time you duck hunt a refuge.

"Give me your bullet Barney!"

Somebody please correct me if I am mistaken, because I am taking a guess here.

Remember when WJ Clinton was running for his second term. He made a campaign promise of adding X number of thousands of police across the nation. All the big cities went absolutely nuts thinking they were going to get butt loads of federal funding to hire additional police.

Instead, the feds strapped guns and badges onto a bunch of USFS rangers and BLM Rangers, and strapped blue lights onto their pickups. (guess part here) I wonder if these game reserve cops got their guns at the same time with the same pen stroke.

It seems we got along just fine before Rangers officers carried guns and badges. I, for one, would be perfectly happy to see law enforcement done by properly trained LEOs, and forest or grassland conservation work done by those properly trained to do that job.

To All,

SORRY guys but UNLESS we start allowing ALL federal refuges & USFS areas to be under the enforcement authority of the STATE Game Wardens, we are going to be SOON in "a real mess", imo.

I was once the Provost Marshal of a very large in area Army post & we finally gave up & hired GS-grade Post Game Wardens to police the post areas.
(We had only a "skeleton" MP force & a handful of DoD Police.)

UNLESS everyone was willing to let civilians come on the post & slaughter our deer on a wholesale basis at night & out of season, there was nothing else that we could do.
(My driver & I caught two YAHOOS on Summer night about 2100 with EIGHTEEN WT that had been killed with a suppressed .22LR rifle, equipped with a Starlight scope, over bait. = Had the rifle NOT been unlicensed, I could have done little but charge them with Criminal Trespassing & escort them off post.)
Note: The 2 jack-lighters were tried/convicted in federal district court for Possession of a Prohibited Weapon, under the NFA. = They both got substantial "federal time".

ADDENDA: About 3 weeks after we hired the Game Wardens, one of the guys caught a fellow with 4 deer in the bed of his PU. = When apprehended by the GW he reportedly said, "This ain't fair. I've been able to kill all the deer that I liked & anytime I wanted to. Now, I'm being arrested for killing just 4.."
(He was tried in District Court, served a year in confinement, lost his truck/rifle & was also fined 2,000.oo.)


I fear that on the refuges & NFS properties, which do NOT have assigned LE personnel, the SAME thing will happen in those places, whenever the "part-time LE officers" cease to be able to protect our wildlife.

ImVho, the thing to do is allow the State Game Wardens to enforce federal game laws.
(All that it would take is to "dual-swear" the State officers.)

yours, tex

Good!

I bet half of them quit when stripped of their gun. 😉 It’ll be like Hightower from “Police Academy” disarming, AR-15 gone, sidearm gone, backup gone, backup to the back up gone, short barreled shot from the trunk gone. Now when they approach citizens on THEIR land following the laws they’ll have to approach them a lot less puffed up and empowered. Every god damned federal agency and many state agencies has some element that absolutely needs a law enforcement wing along with the firearms and the major increase in budget money that requires.

Coworker and I got stopped by her one night crossing over the Blue Water bridge into Sarnia... Petite little red head. BIG temper. NO humor. WOW ! ! !

Fire in the hole

Now they need to do the same to forest service law enforcement. There is a group of over zealous wanna be's........

I'm surrounded by Refuges here. In defense of these guys ( personally, not the program) the vast majority of these people (here) are hired fresh out of the military as a means of helping veterans. They take a 21 year old Marine, fresh from Liberia, train him in law enforcement basics and say "here ya go, this is your 10 miles of NOTHING. If somebody ever comes here, don't let em do anything."

Never heard the term? Haven't done much shot gunning have you. Last time I was on a refuge, "Gray's Lodge" in N. Ca., I certainly don't recall a max amount of shells we took in. That was '90 or '91 tho.

Tex - state fishcops already do enforce federal and state regulations on WMA's here. I'd guess that things are very different from military preserves.

All skybusting accomplishes, is reducing the take for every other hunter in the area. I would have guessed that WMA managers would want to encourage that.

Had the exact same thing happen in Oregon by a female state trooper warden!

Try Alaska's situation.

"The problem is that some of these guys had no business being turned loose".

Fixt it for you.

Those are generally in a great minority, however, IME.

A friend of mine worked for many years as a seasonal employee for the Kenai NWR, locally. At the end of day BS seasion in the equipment yard, waiting for quitting time to officially arrive, a half dozen were talking about retirement.

"Gene", Bud asked, "When are you going to retire?"

"Hell, I've been retired for years. I just haven't told them."

I had a female TSA agent at Sea-Tac demand to see the plugs in two double guns. She needed to determine their legality, she said...

No schit!

We had one follow us around for almost 4 hours. He wrote my FIL a ticket for "damage to native wildlife" or some schit like that because he parked his minivan on some grass in a parking area. He pulled over further so I could also park there.

I suspect someone has to be putting the idiots up to that kind of idiocy.I

You should have just unzipped and hauled it out, Art.

We would have corresponded with you......

McAlester OK?

FreeMe,

Frankly, I don't know how different federal wildlife refuges & NFS properties technically are from the rules/regulations/public laws of military facilities BUT where there are NO LEOs, the poachers/drug dealers/criminals will RUN WILD. = FACT!!

At another Army post, I convinced the Past CDR (COL, 06) to let me swear-in ALL of the SGT (E5) & up NCOs, the WO/CPT/LTs from Range Control Branch (a total of 37 persons) in as Post Game Wardens, issued them an ID card/.38SPL revolver/holster & told them to STOP whatever poaching that they could, as well as to detain any felony criminals for our MPs/DoD Police, that they encountered in the normal course of their regular RC duties..
(DoD regulations state that ANYONE in the grade of E5 or above & DoD civilians in grade GS4/WG4 or above MAY be trained/sworn in as a Game Warden with the consent of "An officer, who exercises GCM authority".)

Fwiw, my original intent was to try to reduce the B&E of "remote area buildings", cases of severe vandalism, recurring thefts of government property & other crimes on post, as we did NOT have enough LE personnel assigned NOR the budget to hire any more police/guards.
(Military Game Wardens MAY apprehend anyone for crimes committed in their view, as they are considered to be federal LEO.)
We were STUNNED in the first 120 days that our "new" GW arrested 19 burglars (who were caught breaking into or inside "secured buildings"), 11 felony thefts (grand thefts of government property), 2 vandals (who were caught damaging government buildings), 1 arsonist (who set a military PU on fire) & 41 poachers.
(NOBODY had any idea that there were THAT MANY criminals & "undetected crimes" on our post. =====> Fwiw, "after the word got around" about the apprehensions/convictions, the on-post crime rate fell by 28% & thereafter fell to about 64% of the usual reported crime-rate over the next year.)

NOTE: One of the burglars was found, once he was at the PMO & fingerprinted, to be WANTED in FOUR States (CT, NJ, NC & SC) for "indecent assault on a minor child", auto theft & several counts of burglary. = SC sent a pair of SLED agents to return him for trial there for the Indecent Assault & 4 counts of Auto Theft.

yours, tex

Regarding the 'bullet limit' and sky-busters here is the theory......

Public hunting for waterfowl is like no other circus in the world. Ducks and geese learn quick to avoid spots where they get shot at so ethical hunters work (call) birds into close range (30-40 yards) before shooting and try not to educate every bird that flies over. The 'other' type of hunter will wildly shoot at every bird they see, no matter how high. All that does is wound birds and educate every bird to stay away from the area because it is dangerous. Limiting the number of shells these goofballs get makes them either leave early or wait and take better shots at birds.

For the big game hunters out there, imagine that every goof in the county took a shot at every deer they saw, no matter where it was, near, far, etc. That would get frustrating real quick and you would want to force them into some sort of self control. Telling them they could only have 5 bullets for each deer would make them think more before pulling the trigger. Same thing with limiting the number of shells at these refuges. If you cannot kill 6 ducks with 25 shells, there is a problem with your shooting.

Now......................... before you shoot the messenger I do not necessarily support this kind of rule. I can say that I avoid public waterfowl hunting because of ALL the goofy stuff that goes on there. The list of stupid stuff goes on and on recorded at public waterfowl hunting spots.

wildfowl,

You are correct. = At one Army post that was BUCKSHOT ONLY for deer, several "hunters" fired at WT more than 300M away.===-> Those, imo, aren't hunters; instead they are simply "NUTS".


yours, tex.

I nominate this thread for Nothing Burger of the Week.

Trimmin' tits off a boar hog.

MtnBoomer,

SORRY that you're bored. = Some of us think that there are a few interesting things on the thread.

yours, tex

I've seen more stupid shooting from deer hunters than I ever have from waterfowl hunters. The orange army is full of people that know nothing about hunting and should never have a weapon in their hands. Waterfowl hunters usually hunt in groups with at least one person that know how to hunt birds . That person will let the fool know what he is doing wrong and put a end to it real fast. What is sky busting for one person is a dead bird for another.

Yep. You're right about that. Signing off this one.