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Last edited by OutofRoll; 05-02-2021, 05:13 PM. -
Curious as to what kind of applicants they're looking for. Do you have to have a law enforcement background?
Looks like my JD meets the minimum requirements, but there's a ton of questions asking about your law enforcement experience as it relates to wildlife/conservation type things (which I have ZERO of). -
Referred 6 January. 15 years MIL (12 as Military Police), 2 years Federal corrections and 5 years as 1801 LE experience). Not sure if I want it though--if someone knows anything about the job and agency, please chime in.Comment
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Yea does anyone know how competitive this is and how selective they’re gonna be? Although I am in the running for a few 1811s, this is truly what I could see myself doing for my entire career. I turned down a final offer with my state’s F&W LE (FWC) like an idiot cause the pay was insultingly low, but hopefully this could be
my second chance. Was able to put in my apps for a couple of these right at 1am EST because I happened to be up and check USA jobs by sheer luck.Comment
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Posting closed 1/30. Surprised it took them that long to get 100 apps.Comment
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I was told the last hiring in 2018-2019 netted 20 new officers out of approximately 2500 applicantsComment
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You'll hop in your truck every morning and stop in at the office, i.e. refuge HQ. After refilling your Yeti with Folgers and enjoying some friendly banter with the office gals, off you go for a patrol. Maybe you'll check in with your boss, maybe not. Since fewer of them ever did LE than ever before, you may not have an advocate in that position. But you'll mostly be left alone and have control over your daily activities, which is rare in the G.
AND- keep in mind this- your employer is not an agency where LE is it's sole mission. The agency is run by biologists, not cops. LE is a niche, and refuge LE is second banana to OLE, which largely considers you to be pizzants who live in their shadow. You'll realize pretty quick where you stand on the totem pole with this outfit--- at the bottom.
You'll gas up your rig and check the boat ramps for activity. If trailers are parked at the ramps, you'll go hook up your boat and launch as well. If the lots are empty, you'll stay in your truck and drive to the various public access sites.
People approach all day. Fishermen ask what bait the fish are hitting on. Hunters want to know where the ducks are at. Birdwatchers ask where they can see a red-eyed vireo. Toothless goobers with dark spittle on their chin tell you they always wanted to be a game warden and ask how to get hired.
If it's summer, you'll check fishing licenses and creels. If it's fall, you'll be checking deer and duck hunters. Night surveillances for spotlighters. Zero dark thirty morning surveillance for early shooting. The busy season is definitely fall. Somedays you'll leave at 4am and not return until after midnight.
Usually there's an off season in late winter/early spring that allows for training and equipment maintenance but it can be busy year round at many wildlife refuges. Some places are secret hookup spots for downlow encounters of the same sex. You'll be on foot patrol on the nature trail (the same trail families and school groups hike all the time) and as you turn a corner, you encounter two middle age males getting freaky at the picnic area. You ask for their IDs but they have a lot to lose by complying... they are likely married with kids and professionally employed, like guidance counselor or a minister. So instead of complying, suddenly you are wrestling two half-clothed and fully sprung adult men who will do almost anything to escape the situation, lest their secret lives get exposed.
Some refuges are scenic gems, like Elk refuge in Wyoming. Most are wetlands, i.e. buggy lowlands and snake infested swamps where something is always out to get you... cottonmouths hanging from tree branches over the canals, timber rattlers as thick as loblolly limbs, and the ubiquitous swarms of biting insects. Other refuges, like Detroit River, are nestled in urban centers surrounded by heavy industry. Instead of enjoying sunsets over the mountains every night, you'll be marveling at the various hues of benzene as it bellows from a factory smokestack.
You quickly learn how to mitigate the natural threats, and the man made as well. Like how hunters and fishermen often evacuate their bowels in the access parking areas, seeing how there's no restroom or outhouses. After one time of stepping in fresh human dookie, you'll never exit your rig without carefully scanning the grass and dirt.
And there may be parts of the job that you probably weren't aware of, like nuisance animal control. Everything from feral pigs to nutria to mute swans to abandoned house cats. You'll become an expert marksmen, and learn the value of a burlap sack and a brick when it comes to stopping an old tomcat from eating more birds.
Some refuges (especially the older ones) offer housing. If you live in refuge housing, it means you never leave work. People knock on your door at all hours and management expects you to respond 24/7 to anything that happens. Your neighbors are your co-workers, so your life is one insular loop of work and co-workers. And you may live in a location where the locals despise the USFWS (see Malheur, Oregon). The result is living and working in a bunker situation, which isn't healthy from any angle in the long run.
Refuges are often located off the beaten path, in backwater parts of the country where the quality of life isn't exactly the highest. There may not be employment opportunities for spouses and the school systems may not be ideal. You may be able to move to a better location after a couple of years or you may get stuck in a blankhole for your career. The cookie crumbles differently for everyone.
Someone commented earlier about being in the running for 1811 jobs as well. Here's the deal: refuge LE can be a blast- outside every day in God's country, running boats and atvs, actually doing real game warden work (OLE does almost zero of this anymore). But there's a huge difference between GS-9 vs GS-13 when it comes to financial security. And there's also a huge difference working for an agency where LE is it's primary mission vs. an agency that just kinda dabbles in it. And at some point, running boats and atvs loses the excitement and you yearn to work bigger things than litterers and late shooters and accosting closeted men in the picnic area....
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Well threw my hat into the ring for this job announcement. Let’s see where this goes. Interesting duty locations listed on there. Also, I noticed the blurb about “Additional locations will be added later down the line during the hiring process since additional vacancies are expected.” Does anyone know which locations may come open or is this just some sort of attempt by the agency to possibly attract candidates to apply who may be qualified for the position but not interested at all in the location vacancies they posted?Comment
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Announcement is being advertised "Location Negotiable After Selection". The locations identified so far as having a vacant position are as follows:
Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, Bloomington, Minnesota
Illinois River National Wildlife Refuge, Havana, Illinois
Sheldon-Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge, Lakeview, Oregon
Desert National Wildlife Refuge, Las Vegas, Nevada
James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge, O'ahu, Hawaii
Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Princeton, Oregon
Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife Refuge, Winona, Illinois
Patriots & Profits Hammonds & Burns segment 1995 - YouTubeComment
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wildlife97 This was very insightful I appreciate this information. So in a way it’s like winning the lottery by being offered a prime Refuge location to start your career if offered the position because it seems challenging to get a transfer once you are at your initial post? Also, because of this reason do you see a lot of employee movement from one agency to the next? Such as FWS to Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, NPS or vice versa? Seems like once you have LMPT a whole new world opens up to you.Comment
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Looks like they're going through apps. Wasn't referred. Check your email.Comment
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And of course I got the “vets must be referred before you by law message” for the recent grad. Man, that really bums me out.Comment
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Hate the game, not the players. Enlist today, then you can't bellyache about it.
Browse Army Jobs and Careers | goarmy.comComment
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Yep, might as well just sign up for OCS at this point.Last edited by griffinlocke; 02-10-2021, 11:27 AM.
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Wow these guys cleared through those applications fast. Pretty impressive..I believe there were a few different announcements for Merit and Vets that had later close dates than open to Everyone. There is absolutely no telling how many applications they received for those announcements since they didn’t cap off. My guess is 2500+ apps. Good luck sifting through that endless pool and determining best guys and gals for the job.Comment
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2,500 is a good estimate. Probably more. I used to work college job fairs and people would line up 100 deep for federal agencies. And that would just be at one college.
Back in the day story: pre-internet, or back when the internet involved a landline telephone and a bee boop machine, if you wanted to apply for federal jobs you'd go to a federal office or post office and look at the 'green sheets', about 20 pages of job listings, everything from dam operator for the Bonneville Power Administration to large animal reproductive tugger at the National Zoo. Buried among all those listings would be refuge LE jobs at podunk refuges far away from civilization centers. Not many knew about the positions and even less would apply. People would get *the call*- "The job is yours if you want it. You and three other people applied. And they had zero qualifications." Now every crim justice senior, every backwoods goober with an internet connection, and every person who shotgun applies to all agencies puts in....
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