by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

The road to becoming a Maine Game Warden drives new recruits through 14 weeks of training and into five regions of Maine, too, including Machias where last month trainees practiced crime scene management during a storm that dropped five inches of rain in a single day.

“The rain definitely added an extra element to things,” said Warden Josh Beal, who worked with the new wardens during their week in Washington County. 

Most of their training takes place at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy in Vassalboro, but the wardens also spend five weeks in five different regions of Maine, including Downeast, Sebago Lake, Greenville, Aroostook County, and Sidney. 

Each day of the recruits’ field week is focused on a different element of their training. On Monday, the group used classroom time to prepare for field shooting investigations, then Tuesday’s schedule, rain or no rain, was reserved for field practice on hunting-related shooting incidents, complete with practice deflecting pushy members of the media.

While in Washington County, the group of 10 stayed at the University of Maine at Machias, which also made space available for a makeshift hospital where students gained experience following victims or perpetrators through their medical care, too. 

“They practiced going to a hospital to assess their injuries and interview them to get their side of the story, to see if that lines up with the evidence in the field,” said Beal.

The Maine Warden Service is a law enforcement agency responsible for all things outdoors, including search and rescue operations, enforcement of laws pertaining to fishery and wildlife resources, as well as the operation of snowmobiles, watercraft, and ATVs. Though the warden service specializes in outdoor law enforcement, like all Maine law enforcement agencies, they’ll respond to any scene they need to, if they’re the closest one to a crime.

Most of the people drawn to becoming a Maine Game Warden, says Beal, have specific things in common, such as a working knowledge of fish and game activities.

“The people that we hire are self-motivated, and work well as a team with other people, and really just have strong work ethics,” said Beal. “They’re adaptable, and they can learn new things.”

Wardens often work closely with other law enforcement agencies, which is why on their final day Downeast, the new wardens went out with the Maine Marine Patrol.

“It gives them the experience of going out with them on the ocean, and insight into some of the things they do and some of the situations we may end up working together on,” said Beal.

But before they left for the boats, the wardens made their traditional sunrise run, seven miles from Washington Academy to a quiet rural cemetery in East Machias where they learned about the lives and deaths of Charles Niles and Lyman O. Hill, the first two Maine wardens killed in the line of duty. 

Hill, together with his parents, wife, and children, is buried there in his family cemetery, overlooking Gardner Lake.

Local warden Joe McBrine, recently named Maine’s Game Warden of the Year, spoke to the wardens about Hill and Lyman, who died by gunshot on Nov. 8, 1886, killed near First Machias Lake in the pursuit of two poachers who were illegally hunting deer with dogs.

“We recently read that Hill snowshoed from Machias to southern Penobscot to go patrolling up in that area,” said McBrine. “It was pushing 80 miles, and on one of the trips [Hill] broke one of his snowshoes.” 

“That’s something to keep in mind, too, if you’re thinking times are tough,” Beal said to the wardens. “It’s pretty humbling to think these guys are snowshoeing 80 miles in the winter, one of them with only one arm. Our stressors are really nothing compared to what these guys dealt with.”

When Hill and Niles were active, McBrine said there was a war going on with poachers.

“These two wardens knew exactly where they were going and the social climate at the time,” said McBrine. “They went up there and they did their job anyway.”

Once their time in Washington County was complete, the new wardens were headed back to the criminal justice academy, and then out to the Sebago region for their final week of field training. 

McBrine ended their morning in the cemetery with a word of advice.

“There are going to be times in your career when the bad people may not like what you’re doing,” said McBrine. “That means you’re doing a good job as a game warden.”

Working in a pouring rain that ultimately dropped five inches Downeast, 10 new Maine Game Wardens and their instructors simulated accident and crime scene investigations in the woods behind the University of Maine at Machias. The week spent in Washington County is part of their training that takes new game warden recruits in five regions of Maine. Photo by Sarah Craighead Dedmon