By Christopher Klaver
CIO
Posted: August 30, 2017 3:17 PM

Want a job where you spend the day driving through the woods and fields in a company-provided pickup truck checking out the scenery? Maybe being a conservation officer is for you.

Just imagine a beautiful late morning, basking in the sun as you stroll through a field, and you are getting paid to be there. Oh, then there is the deer carcass with a bullet hole in it and you have to figure out when and maybe where it was killed, and by whom. You are getting paid for that, too.

You get the opportunity to meet some of the greatest folks in the state. And also some of the biggest idiots. And most of them are carrying a weapon of some kind.

Still interested? Then you are ready to jump it. It will only take 23 weeks in the academy, which includes law enforcement training. And then there are weeks of additional training on various aspects of the job, with the rest of the year spent essentially on a ride-along with experienced COs.

But you will get to meet the governor.

The latest class of recruits, 17 men and seven women, saw both the deer carcass and the governor Tuesday during their seventh week of training. The class demonstrated for the governor the procedures for inspecting a potential poaching scene before getting pictures and going back to work.

Mr. Snyder, in addressing the class, praised them, but only after Natural Resources Director Keith Creagh had put the future of the state on their shoulders.

“The breadth of what you do is incredible,” Mr. Snyder said of the COs.

“They do outstanding work throughout our state in terms of protecting citizens and protecting natural resources,” Mr. Snyder said after meeting with the trainees.

“We succeed and we fail every day on what you do,” Mr. Creagh said. “Your responsibility is very large and your room for error is very small.”

But the sound of the class marching down the hall is enough to make you check your wallet for that valid fishing license.