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Conservation Officer
Conservation officers are needed nationwide to protect wildlife and enforce laws associated with the backcountry. These officers protect the nature of the backcountry as well as the wildlife that live in the areas. This is done by locating animals that have been injured, either by another animal or humans, as well as enforcing various hunting and fishing laws in the area. A Bachelors degree is generally required to enter a career as a conservation officer and can have various concentrations such as criminal justice or forestry. The time spent on earning your degree will pay off when you are able to achieve a starting salary in the $40,000 to $50,000 per year range.
Job Duties
A Conservation officer or game wardens as they are more widely known as have various job duties. They patrol the backcountry to enforce various hunting and fishing laws in the area where they work. If they spot someone driving with a rifle when it is not hunting season, they must question that person to ensure they are not poaching animals illegally. In addition, during hunting season, they utilize checkpoints that hunters must stop at to ensure the game that the hunter has is legal to kill as well as ensure the hunter has the proper license. When they are not in the woods, they also patrol lakes and rivers to ensure fisherman have the proper fishing license and are only taking out the fish that are legal to take. In addition to enforcing hunting and fishing laws, the conservation officer will also protect wildlife in an entire area. For example, if a bear is found in a residential area, it is up to the conservation officer to tranquilize the bear, tag it with a computer chip and determine its sex and age. In rare cases, if the bear or other animal has been a problem in residential areas, they may also need to euthanize the animal as well, however; in most cases, the animal is put into a cage and transported to its natural habitat, far away from any residential areas or larger cities.
Conservation Officer
To go back to college with the future career goal of a conservation officer, you must earn a Bachelors degree, however; unlike many other professions, you have the ability to choose your major. The two main degree programs to enter the field of conservation officers are criminal justice and forestry. Both of these programs are available through some of the best online universities and can be completed totally online utilizing the distance learning feature. The Bachelors degree generally takes about four years to complete, however; it is possible to enter an accelerated program and complete the degree in less time. Courses that an inspiring game warden should concentrate on are math courses as well as both criminal justice and forestry. If you choose the criminal justice major, you will be required to take more core courses in the criminal justice field, then you should take more forestry courses for the elective course; in the same aspect, if you go for the forestry major, you will take more forestry courses for the core, then criminal justice courses for electives.
