WADENA, Sask. – It’s open season for white-tailed deer so conservation officer Dale Achtymichuk is scouring country roads in search of hunters.
Outfitted in orange, most of the hunters are easy to spot walking through stubble fields or driving in their vehicles.
With lights flashing in his otherwise unmarked truck, Achtymichuk pulls over as many as he can find in the Wadena region.
Saskatchewan Environment’s presence in well-known hunting areas is important, said Achtymichuk, whose multi-coloured “conservation officer” crests adorn his cap, coat and shirt.
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“It may make those who would bend the rules think twice,” he said.
At each roadside stop, he checks hunting licences and asks the driver to step outside the vehicle before reaching inside to remove the rifle from the front seat.
“I want to avoid him passing out the gun,” he said. “We don’t need unfortunate accidents.”
Safety is an overriding concern for the officers, who most often work alone. Achtymichuk carries a rifle in the truck, mainly for killing badly wounded animals, while a baton, pepper spray and gun are carried in his belt.
All officers are trained in self-defence techniques.
He used the spray once to subdue an intoxicated driver in a fighting mood who had tried to flee. The driver was then handcuffed and handed over to the local RCMP.
“There are dangers but I don’t take unnecessary risks,” Achtymichuk said of the work. “Common sense is always a good thing to rely on.”
While running a check on a hunter’s licence plate with a central radio dispatcher in Prince Albert, Sask., he explained how the radio is outfitted with an emergency call button. The radio can be detached from the truck and taken into the field.
“The radio is my most important piece of equipment,” he said.
Achtymichuk scribbles notes into a small book at each stop so both he and the dispatcher have records.
The radio helps dispatchers pinpoint the officer’s location, and also enables others from around the province to check in with one another throughout the day.
Today, an officer from Weyburn reports on how hunting activity has lessened through the morning while another is looking for a good surveillance spot in Achtymichuk’s former work area of Blaine Lake.
Scott Hartley, Wadena’s second conservation officer, checks in to report a quiet morning.
That can be explained by the relatively mild fall and lack of snow, said Achtymichuk, who noted deer are most active at sunrise and sunset and tend to move more when it’s cold. As well, hunters prefer the snow because it is easier to track wounded animals.
Mainly men fill conservation jobs, with just a half-dozen females among the 140 officers across Saskatchewan.
Like most conser-vation officers, Achtymichuk’s work hours are flexible. During the busy deer hunting season he can work from dawn till dusk and travel up to 300 kilometres a day.
Some nights, he and Hartley team up on the ground with aircraft surveillance to catch those illegally hunting at night with spotlights. These people face stiff fines and are often repeat offenders with criminal records, he said.
“This is the most dangerous part, dealing with a deadly cocktail of night hunting, drinking, committing an offence and having a firearm,” Achtymichuk said.
“There’s always an element of society that has little or no respect for authority.”
He recalled a few high-speed chases down country roads that ended with his truck in a slough or flipped over.
“If you can’t see the curve in the road, it’s not worth your life. At the end of the day you want to go back to your family.”
Offenders can be fined $200 for carrying a loaded firearm in the vehicle, $300 for hunting in no-hunting zones, and up to $100,000 for other hunting offences.
Officers’ tools include scopes and binoculars to watch for hunters and dummy animals in no-hunting zones to catch the offenders.
“We provide the opportunity. They make the choice to shoot and for them it’s a bad decision,” he said of these sting operations.
Conservation officers are wise to most tricks, like taking home downed animals without tagging them.
When in the office, Achtymichuk sits behind a desk or counter doling out permits to hunters or humane snares to farmers suffering losses to livestock from wildlife attacks and issuing scare cannons to keep birds off swathed crops.
Photos of his wife and two sons sit alongside paintings of wildlife, awards and rural municipal maps.
A native of nearby Kamsack, he took a two-year renewable resources program at the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Arts and Sciences before working as a conservation officer in the Battlefords and Blaine Lake.
Achtymichuk said the Wadena region where he has worked since 2001, is interesting because it sits along the central North American flyway for migratory birds and affords him opportunities to hunt and fish.
He noted the zone sets up six feeding stations and lure crops to minimize damage to farm fields. Such a large concentration of birds attracts many hunters each fall. It’s Achtymichuk’s role to ensure all are aware of hunting and safety regulations.
“Be sure of your target and what’s beyond, as rifle bullets can travel up to three miles,” he said. “It’s their responsibility to know their target and what’s behind it.”
He said the many American hunters coming to the area are generally knowledgeable about hunting regulations. They come equipped with gear and well-trained hunting dogs, enjoy the plentiful game in Canada and marvel at their size and volume.
“They take notice of what we take for granted,” Achtymichuk said.
While limits on bird kills are liberal at 60 over three days, that doesn’t stop some from trying to take more.
He cited the case of 700 birds found dumped in a landfill near Leslie two years ago. No one has yet been prosecuted but officers have strong suspicions about who was responsible.
“If they come back, we’ll be watching them,” Achtymichuk said.
