These are only a few of the many cases investigated by Natural Resource Officers across Manitoba every day. To report violations, call 1-800-782-0076 or your local Manitoba Natural Resources office.

Manitoba NROs led the wildland fire fighting efforts on a large fire in Northwest Manitoba. Incident Management Team Alpha was deployed to Cranberry Portage on June 19, 2010. A lightning strike fire had escaped initial attack and quickly grew beyond local suppression capabilities.

Before the fire was contained, it grew to ~56,000 hectares, caused a partial evacuation of the community of Cranberry Portage, evacuation of the Sourdough Bay cottage subdivision near Flin Flon, closed down Provincial Trunk Highway 39, closed down campgrounds and access to the Grass River Provincial Park, threatened to burn dozens of remote cottages and virtually shut down all backcountry travel in the Northwest Region.

Specialized fire fighting crews from B.C., Ontario, Minnesota and Wisconsin were brought in to help with fire line control. Heavy equipment (bull dozers and skidders) were utilized. As many as 8 water bombers dropped water on various parts of Fire NW 024. 16 helicopters bucketed water, transported crews and equipment and flew operational planning missions.

The Manitoba Office of the Fire Commissioner spent days establishing structural fire fighting equipment on buildings in Cranberry Portage, local lodges, remote cottages and the Sourdough cottage subdivision. Considering the hundreds of structures threatened, only a handful of the more remote structures were overcome by the huge fire.

At its peak operation, approximately 450 personnel were involved in the management of the incident. The specialized training that IMT Alpha took two years ago proved instrumental in their abilities to organize and manage this complex incident.

Manitoba Natural Resource Officer Joe Pope carrying the Olympic torch in Churchill, MB in November 2009.

"The Pope" as he was known amongst many of his colleagues and junior staff was taken from us in early March, 2010. Diagnosed with a terminal cancer 2008, Joe fought a brave and enthusiastic battle. Unfortunately this battle was too difficult and Joe succumbed on March 6, 2010.

A Graduate of the Conservation Enforcement program at Lethbridge College in Alberta, Joe began his career as a Manitoba Natural Resource Officer in 2007. Many of us wondered who was this kid? He can't be working for us, he isn't old enough! Joe was used to being kidded about his youthful looks! His dedication, energy, outgoing personality and thirst for knowledge are what got him hired.

Joe was stationed at Hodgson, MB and lived in Fisher Branch. Joe was only here for a short time but he has left a long list of friends. His enthusiasm and pleasant personality immediately endeared him to everyone that Joe met!

On Friday March 12, 2010 fifteen Manitoba NROs including 6 members of our Honour Guard made the last patrol to Lloyminster, Alberta to attend the celebration of Joe's life. Honour Guards and Officers from Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Federal Governments attended in dress uniforms.

On behalf of the Manitoba Natural Resource Officers' Association, we extend our sincere condolences to Joe's family, friends and colleagues! We also thank each agency who permitted their Officers to attend Joe's service.

We know that he'll be watching over us as we don our uniforms in the battle against poachers! God Speed Joe!

The MNROA is honoured to recognize Natural Resource Officer Ken Ulrich as the Shikar-Safari Club International Manitoba Wildlife Officer of the Year.

Ken started his career in June of 1973 and for the past 35 years has demonstrated the highest level of competency and leadership in all aspects of his duties. His earlier years were spent developing his enforcement skills in Clandeboye, Whitemouth, Hadashville and Portage La Prairie Districts. These Districts were some of the busiest wildlife enforcement areas in the Province. From this he gained an uncanny ability to apprehend violators.

As he moved north to Snow Lake, those abilities led many officers to seek Ken’s guidance and knowledge with enforcement situations, Wildland fire suppression and field smarts.

Ken’s time in Snow Lake coincided with 3 of the worst Wildland fire years experienced in Manitoba. He represented the Department’s involvement on several very large fire incidents; culminating in the evacuation of Snow Lake residents in the immense fire of 1989.

As the Snow Lake District Supervisor, he also managed the Wekusko Falls Initial Attack Base. Wekusko Falls is the elite level operational and logistical Initial Attack base that it is because of Ken’s attention to detail.

His organizational skills resulted in Ken being hand picked by the Department to take on the challenges of supervising the operations of the Falcon Lake area of the Whiteshell Provincial Park. In his capacity as District Supervisor, he gained the respect of the whole community; at work and outside of work. He and his family became valuable members in the community with ties that exist to this day.

During his tenure at Falcon Lake, Ken took a lead role in developing major enforcement strategies such as the Provincial Liquor Ban. This policy has greatly improved the May Long Weekend camping experience in every Manitoba Provincial Park. Many of the current policies that positively affect officer safety were initiated as a result of Ken’s dedication.

A move to the Lac du Bonnet District held many more challenges that Ken eagerly accepted. Wildlife enforcement was a major role in this district with numerous cases being initiated and conducted under Ken’s guidance. The “tree stand removal policy” is one of his initiatives.

He was instrumental in the development of a new “Peat Burning Policy” along with crop burning guidelines due to the high occurrences in the LDB District.

LDB has seen some of the busiest black bear occurrence years during Ken’s term. Consequently, his insight contributed to a detailed reporting system which aided Wildlife Branch in developing the Bear District Occurrence Reports, the development of bear policies and programs.

For approximately 10 years, he has been one of only two Incident Commanders for Manitoba Conservation’s Incident Management Teams. He’s led his teams at several large Wildland fire and tornado type incidents. His ability to cope with the pressures of evacuations, containing the situation, directing staff, and dealing with the media all with great poise and professionalism have given him the respect he well deserves.

Due to his high standards and capabilities, the Department appropriately assigned him acting Chief NRO status, not once but several times. It was always Ken’s decision to not pursue a Chief position full time as he preferred the field work and public contact of the District NRO.

He has been an active member in the Manitoba Natural Resource Officers’ Association and spent many hours at booths, trade shows and community career events promoting the role of the Natural Resource Officer.

Ken’s ability to organize and manage has always been his greatest asset! This time his peers hand picked him to sit on the organizational committee of the 2004 North American Wildlife Enforcement Officers’ Association annual conference held in Winnipeg. His positive and respectful nature made him the natural choice to serve as liaison between the MNROA and the Department over a two year period.

Congratulations to the Ulrichs on Ken’s selection as Manitoba’s 2009 Wildlife Officer of the Year!

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Seizures related to nightlighting incident in the Hartney area. Also seized and forfeited were the accused's pick up truck. The accused is a young offender therefore to protect his identity, his name and photographs of the truck have not been released.

Visit the Western Canadian Game Warden site. Subscriptions to "The Western Canadian Game Warden Magazine" available!

Subscriptions can be purchased on line via PayPal, or a subscription card can be printed and mailed in.

www.WesternCanadianGameWarden.com

8 of 12 Honor Guard with the Deputy Minister of Conservation and the Assistant Regional Director of Operations.

Manitoba Conservation Operations Division is proud to acknowledge the Natural Resource Officer Provincial Honor Guard. The Honor Guard consists of 12 Natural Resource Officers who at anytime can be called into action. The Honor Guard attends various ceremonies such as the Police/Peace Officer Memorial held each year on the last Sunday of September at the Manitoba Legislature. This ceremony is held in concert with the national event that takes place each year on the same date in Ottawa. Police and Peace Officers are honored for the ultimate sacrifice at this event and is open for all the public to attend.

The Honor Guard also attends fallen Resource Officer funerals or officer sudden deaths at the request of families. The Guard will act as pallbearers or simply be present in full dress uniform. The Natural Resource Officer Honor Guard has attended out of province fallen officer deaths as a sign of respect and solidarity.

The Natural Resource Officer Honor Guard is a representative of the Minister of Conservation.

If anyone would like to contact the Honor Guard feel free to send an email to the Commander Robert Belanger at Rob.Belanger@gov.mb.ca .

2008 Checkstops

Manitoba NROs conducted several checkstops during the 2008 hunting seasons. Hunter compliance was very good with only a few violations encountered. Hunters, anglers and anyone transporting wildlife or fish are reminded that written authority to transport and/or possess these items must be carried by the persons in possession of these items.

For hunters, authority is generally in the form of the game tag or possibly a Permit to Possess Wildlife. For persons transporting more than an allowable limit of fish, authority is generally in the form of a commercial sales receipt from a vendor or a loadslip from a producer.

It is illegal to transport fish or wildlife without proper authority.

Nev. (AP) -- It's not all checking hunting and fishing licenses.

Sometimes the issues are bigger. Like when a Nevada game warden was handed the chore of figuring out how to separate two bull elk who locked horns while sparring and couldn't untangle them.

The saga began Nov. 21 when a rancher in Reese River Valley spotted the two elk.

By the following day, the animals were gone and the rancher assumed they had separated.

A week later, according to Nevada Division of Wildlife biologist Tom Donham, the rancher was out looking for some of his cows and saw the elk again.

This time, he called the wildlife department and Donham, game warden Brian Eller and Bureau of Land Management wildlife biologist Bryson Code headed out to see what they could do.

When they reached Indian Valley, south of Austin, it was Nov. 29, one week after the elk were first seen.

"When we arrived where the rancher had last seen them, we found them pretty quickly. They were both lying on the ground and one of them was in a very uncomfortable looking position with his head directly above the others head and his nose pointing straight up to the sky," Donham said.

Eller said he wondered if they had survived their ordeal.

"Once we found out they were alive, I was hoping they couldn't move and would stay where they were. That didn't happen. When they ran off, I was hoping that they could not go very far. That didn't happen either," he said.

The elk may have been sparring at the outset, but Donham and Eller say they used teamwork to run for nearly a mile to evade the newcomers.

"It looked like they had been doing it all their lives; serious cooperation if I've ever seen it," Donham said.

After two unsuccessful attempts, Donham was able to get a tranquilizer dart into one of the elk. With one down, the other could not run, but was also partially tranquilized in order to separate the two.

Eller and Code helped hold the elk down while Donham used a hand saw to remove part of an antler off one of them.

"As soon as they were apart, the bull that hadn't gotten a full dose jumped to his feet and Bryson, Brian and I quickly gave him all the room he wanted. He went off about 30 yards and lay down for abou 10 minutes before finally walking up the hill and over the ridge, none the worse for wear" Donham said.

The other elk was treated with antibiotics and eventually walked off as well after the tranquilizer had worn off.

"If these two bulls had not been discovered, and we never got the call, they more than likely would have both died. Watching the bulls walk away, and knowing that we likely saved them from a slow death was definitely one of those moments that makes this job rewarding."