We all want to safely enjoy Iowa’s natural resources and have those important treasures
protected for future generations.
Those are just a couple of jobs of the Iowa DNR's Law Enforcement Bureau.
The highly trained conservation officers are out here every day, educating the public and
enforcing state and federal laws, helping to enhance the Iowa outdoors.
(music) Hi kiddos.
Hello.
How are you?
Good, how are you?
Going boating?
Awesome, it's a beautiful day isn't it?
Yeah, it is.
Conservation officers with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources are sworn peace officers
with the same powers of any city police, county sheriff's deputies or state troopers.
But these law enforcement officers have a lot of additional training and responsibilities.
They enforce all hunting, trapping, ATV and snowmobile laws, they lead hunter education
classes and during the summer they spend much of their time here, on the water, focusing
on navigation laws.
Just wanted to chat with you a little bit about him not having his life jacket on earlier.
How old is he?
Eight.
He's eight.
Okay.
Do you know the law about kids under 13, if we're underway we've got to have it on.
Yeah, it was wet, he took it back off and dried off and put it back on.
Okay.
When the boat is under power we've got to have that life jacket on him at all times.
Just wanted to educate.
I saw that he had it on when we came by to get you.
If the vessel is parked at the beach or something you don't have to have it on.
It sometimes gets hot, I know, right.
But for safety reasons we've got to have it on okay?
Dustin Eighmy: We want to be visible, we want to be seen and the reason behind that is deterrence.
The biggest fear is arrest on some people.
If they're out there and they're drinking too much and they see us and they just in
the back of their head going, I should slow down or I should get a sober driver, that's
what I want.
I want them to be able to know that we're out here, we're going to enforce the laws,
we're serious about the boating while intoxicated.
We want you to have fun out here but we want you to do it safely.
Safety is key for everyone.
When a police officer encounters someone with a weapon, tensions can rise quickly.
Conservation officers deal with those tricky situations on a regular basis.
Eighmy: We're pretty much alone out there in that field and sometimes we can be alone
on the boat, sometimes we're alone during hunting seasons checking hunters and pretty
much everyone that we encounter has a gun or a knife on them, even fishing.
I had to come see what you're catching.
White bass?
Can I check your license real quick?
Do you have it on you?
I was afraid you were going to ask.
It's up at the -- It's all right, I'll look you up.
Oh you can do that?
You're good to go, buddy.
Just make sure you have it on you next time.
It's not a big deal.
You guys are good to go.
I'm glad they're biting for you.
When fully staffed the DNR has 90 conservation officers.
In rural Iowa, each officer typically covers one or two counties.
In metro counties or busy recreation areas there may be two officers.
Eighmy: Most days is we're driving around in the countryside looking for hunters, anglers
and making sure people are being in compliance with our laws of the state of Iowa, making
sure they have their hunting licenses, fishing licenses and also education is a huge part
of it.
If we see a youngster out there with dad fishing we want to stop and spend some time talking
to that youngster.
Officers often visit schools or do other presentations in the community.
Having an educated public can help officers enhance, promote and protect the state's natural
resources.
Most people are glad they're there.
They thank us for our job, thank you for being out there, my family is out here enjoying
the day and I feel safer with you being out here.
So we get a good positive feedback from the public out here.
While patrolling Saylorville Lake on this particular day, Officer Eighmy spotted an
injured pelican someone had called and reported earlier.
We dropped him off near the shore so he could carefully capture the bird and figure out
what might be wrong.
Eighmy: Do you see the fish bone in the neck poking out there?
She's going to go up to Ames from here to the wildlife care clinic and they'll take
care of her from there and hopefully get that bone out of her neck and then get her rehabilitated
where they can release her back into the wild here soon and hopefully get some food in here
because I think that fish bone was causing her not to eat and she's just too weak and
she might have a broken wing too.
It's all in a day's work for DNR law enforcement.
The days can be long and often involve working weekends and holidays when many people are
enjoying the outdoors.
But it's a job with a rewarding mission.
Eighmy: It's a struggle between managing your family life, fun time and then work, but you
kind of knew that getting into the field and that is what you love about it is being able
to go out and help people, protect the natural resources, educate the public and make sure
people are, the public safety is a big thing too.