FWP AT WORK

WARDEN OF WEST

ROBBY POHLE

Game Warden, West Yellowstone

A LOT OF PEOPLE THINK game wardens only check hunting and fishing licenses and catch poachers, but we also enforce many other outdoor recreation regulations, especially those related to snowmobiling and off-highway vehicle (OHV) riding.

It’s important work because registration fees and annual trail pass fees go back into grooming snow trails, removing downed logs from OHV trails, putting up signs, and funding search-and-rescue operations. When I’m out checking snowmobilers and OHV users for their registration and trail passes, I’m also doing a lot of education, letting them know where that money goes.

Then each summer I do boat patrols on Hebgen, Quake, and Wade lakes, mainly checking fishing licenses and making sure boats aren’t overloaded and are carrying the appropriate life jackets for everyone on board. In late summer and all fall I’m out patrolling during hunting season.

I’ve been a warden here in “West,” as we call West Yellowstone, for five years. I grew up in Canada and then had several jobs after high school, including working as a deputy sheriff for Park County out of Gardiner. There I met a lot of great people with the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service. I decided to go back to school at the University of Montana and try to get a position with one of those federal agencies. While in school, an opportunity with the FWP game warden program opened up, and I jumped on it and ended up here.

I couldn’t be happier. This area has every type of recreation that FWP manages—camping, fishing, trapping, hunting, boating, OHV use, snowmobiling, you name it. Being from Canada, I don’t mind the snow and cold one bit, and I love snowmobiling.

Another plus about this area is that there’s a great team of law enforcement folks with FWP, the Forest Service, Gallatin County, the Department of Livestock, and other agencies, and we all help each other whenever we can.

My wife and I just had our first child, Robert, back in September. We’re thinking that this part of the world will be a pretty neat place for a kid to grow up.