A Year in the Life
By Jay Harvey

0ne of the most frequently asked questions I receive is the one that goes something like this; "What does a Game Warden do?" My standard answer is Wardens enforce Oklahoma's fish and wildlife laws. Often the person follows this answer with more questions such as " Do you mean checking fishing licenses", or " What about looking for poachers and spotlighters?" After politely answering yes, I often laugh at how few of our state's inhabitants know what Game Wardens really do. Recently I was going through some of my old daybooks researching an old case I was interested in. I noticed throughout the year I worked or participated in a vast array of different cases from January through December. Whether working alone or with other Wardens, working a special emphasis or investigation, or working on a tip, I saw that what Wardens really do as varied a job as any occupation there is. Each day and season brings new diversity to our jobs. A chronological listing of these cases form the past few years may help a reader understand what a unique job Wardens do.

• Jan. 22nd Worked late shooting duck case with Larry Luman. Arrested 6 hunters, wrote 16 citations and 6 warnings.
• Jan. 23rd Worked duck case at Clear Boggy slough with Larry Luman. Arrested 3 hunters, wrote 6 citations and 5 warnings.
• Mar. 12th Worked netting complaint at Hugo Lake with Wendell Smalling and Shane Fields. Arrested 3 men, wrote 9 citations, confiscated 3 nets and 6 gallons of crappie fillets.
  Mar. 28th Worked meth lab/turkey case. Subjects operating the lab had also killed a hen turkey. Arrested 3 subjects, wrote 6 citations.
• Apr. 21st Worked baiting case on Atoka PHA with Larry Luman and Joe Young. Arrested 4 men who had taken 3 illegal turkeys. Wrote 6 citations and 2 warnings.
• June 4th Worked netting case in Red River with Bob Wingo. Arrested 3 men, wrote 6 citations, confiscated 1 net and 6 species of netted fish.
• Sept. 1st Worked baited dove field with Bob Wingo and Randy Currie. Contacted 12 hunters and one landowner, wrote 11 citations and 2 warnings.
• Oct. 28th Worked report of subject hunting with a rifle during primitive season. Contacted man whom I'd arrested 3 times previously. Wrote 4 citations and confiscated a rifle.
• Nov. 4th Worked Decoy Deer with Bob Wingo and Randy Currie. Had decoy shot 2 times, arrested 4 men, wrote 16 citations.
• Nov.8th Worked deer case I/2 mile from my home. Arrested 2 subjects, wrote 3 citations, confiscated 1 deer and 1 .22 rifle.
• Nov. 11th Worked road hunting case/ illegal deer case with Bob Wingo. Arrested 2 men, wrote 5 citations, confiscated 1 eight point buck, 1 rifle, and 1 pair of NVGs.
• Nov. 21st Worked deer hunting with dogs complaint on Hugo WMA with Wendell Smalling. Arrested 2 men, wrote 4 citations, and captured 3 beagles.
• Dec. 1 st Worked duck case on Clear Boggy slough. Arrested 1 man who shot 20 minutes late and over limited on wood ducks. Wrote 2 citations.
• Dec 30th Worked spotlighters with an airplane. Arrested 2 men who were testing out their new Christmas presents, namely a 1,000,000 candle power spotlight and a .22 mag rifle. Wrote 5 citations and confiscated two presents.

As you can plainly see, a "normal" year for a Game Warden is anything but normal. I've just listed the interesting cases in this article. Throughout the year there were also hunter safety classes, programs, literature distribution, landowner relations, public hearings, technical assistance, assisting other Department divisions, training, etc. This list of what Game Wardens do is endless, and it changes with each sunrise and sunset. Although our main job is enforcing wildlife laws, in reality our job is one with many hats. New Game Wardens find out in a hurry what the small print at the bottom of their job description says. For those of you who don't know, it says " other duties as assigned." We wouldn't have it any other way.