Alberta Welcomes New Fish and Wildlife Officers
Feature story posted on January 22, 2008
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From left to right: Michael Hewitt – Slave Lake, Paul Prefontaine – Edmonton, Cameron
Rowan – Fort McMurray, Vans Hulbert – Peace River, Philip Marasco – Calgary, Adam
Jalbert – Hinton, Travis Gloeckler – High Prairie, Owen Butz – Slave Lake, Andy
Czemmel – Lac La Biche, Chloe Marshall – Red Deer, Lori Backen – Manning
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From an outside perspective, it looks like Chloe Marshall has been preparing her entire life just for the day she could put on her crisply pressed Alberta Fish and Wildlife officer dress uniform.
That proud day was December 20, when Marshall and 10 colleagues received their freshly minted badges in front of family and friends at a graduation ceremony in the gymnasium of the Hinton Training Centre. The new fish and wildlife officers successfully completed the Academy of Western Conservation Law Enforcement program, a gruelling 16-week “boot camp.”
The young twenty-something Marshall grew up on a ranch near tiny Midway, in B.C.’s beautiful southern interior region, learning conservation and respect for natural resources from her parents. At home, Marshall learned not to overgraze the land and to be mindful about the amount of water taken from the creek on the property. That was just the way things were done on the ranch—now, in retrospect, it can be seen as the sound environmental policy it was. Later, Marshall fought wildfires near 100 Mile House and participated in the Stream Watch program near Nordegg.
Marshall is a graduate of Lethbridge College’s conservation enforcement program. Now, she has the practical training to add to her degree, experience and a lifelong passion to work in an “office” in the forest, in sight of the mountains, with the sound of running water nearby.
The training “was an awesome experience” said Marshall. “Every course has been fun and interesting,” adding that she particularly appreciated the rigour and potential practical application of the defensive tactics class. “We never know what we will be faced with out in the field.’’
Other courses included instruction on firearms, enforcement laws, handling problem wildlife and emergency survival and rescue techniques.
For the first time, Saskatchewan and B.C. officers were included in the training, bringing the class total to 26. Marshall was one of three female officers and, when asked if other young women will look to her as a role model, she said, “I hope so.”
Training with officers from other provinces helped the students make important inter-agency connections, which will be a valuable future resource, says Marshall.
With training over, Marshall feels confident and is keen to get to work at her first posting, in the Red Deer district, far from desks, boardrooms and fax machines. “It’s an opportunity to spend a lot of my time outside, in the field.”
Minister of Sustainable Resource Development, Ted Morton, an avid hunter and angler himself, is pleased that a new complement of officers is heading out to the field. “Congratulations to our new fish and wildlife officers for successfully completing a very demanding training program,” says Morton. “Activity is increasing quickly across the entire province so I’m very happy to see more officers out there protecting our resources with a balance of enforcement and education.”
An increase of $1.5 million in the SRD budget was committed for hiring and training the new officers.
Placing new fish and wildlife officers in the field will bring the enforcement team to about 140 full-time officers. These officers patrol lakes, rivers, forests and fields, issue licences and deliver educational programs, among other duties, which directly sustain and enhance our high quality of life. These activities are a key part of Premier Ed Stelmach’s Building Communities vision for Alberta.
