Game warden Jason Batchelder patrols The Great Outdoors
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Jason Batchelder |
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By Thatcher Moats Times Argus Staff - Published: November 30, 2009
BARRE – Jason Batchelder, like other game wardens in Vermont, gets to spend many of his work days in Vermont's great outdoors. He drives boats on Lake Champlain in the summer and rides snowmobiles on the local network of trails in the winter.
"We always joke, 'Where does a game warden go to get away from it all?' because we're already there," Batchelder said in an interview on Wednesday.
But it's not all riding around on recreational vehicles. There's the road kill that needs to be picked up which you get used to, he says, though it can also make your stomach turn – especially after it's been sitting on the blacktop in the summer heat.
And as a fully-certified law enforcement officer, game wardens pursue potential criminals who are sometimes carrying guns.
But it's all part of a career that Batchelder, who lives in Barre, says he chose when he was growing up in Derby, though there have been several detours along the way.
"It was something I always wanted to do as far back as I can remember," he said.
Batchelder and the state's other game wardens, who work for the Department of Fish & Wildlife — which is within the Agency of Natural Resources — are busy right now with deer season, which is practically a religion among many Vermonters. Not everyone practices this religion according to the state laws, however, and that's where wardens like Batchelder come in.
Lately he's been dealing with "road hunters" and setting up deer decoys to try to nab hunters who don't follow the rules.
But those are just a fraction of the kinds of things Batchelder has dealt with in his five years as a full-time game warden.
He once caught a guy fishing for bass using a two-foot long garter snake as bait. That would be fine except it was during a time of year when live bait was not allowed for bass, said Batchelder.
He's caught people hunting deer with crossbows.
He's caught people for "littering," or improperly disposing of deer carcasses, a fairly common practice by people whether they get their deer legally or illegally.
Then there are the numerous road-kill calls, and the meat often ends up in people's freezers.
Batchelder has a list of people who want to receive deer or moose meat from animals killed on the Vermont's highways and byways.
To get on that list, you just ask.
"I'll go into a store and they say, 'Hey, you want to put me on the list?' and I know exactly what they're talking about," said Batchelder.
Despite the list, it doesn't always work out that meat from road kill gets distributed evenly.
"There are people who listen to the scanner and get way more than their share," he said.
Those people will go to the scene and scoop up the deer before anyone can arrive, Batchelder said.
"Many times we'll get there and find a big blood stain. More often than not the deer is gone," he said.
Legally, however, an animal killed on the road must be released by an official – it can be a game warden, a sheriff or even a selectman, said Batchelder.
There are a lot of rules governing fish and wildlife in the state, but there are also practices that game wardens consider unethical, dangerous or both, which are still legal.
"Road hunting" is one of those. You can drive down the road, and if you spot a deer you can get out and shoot it, as long as you are 10 feet from the road, the land is not posted, and other rules aren't being broken.
But Batchelder said they strongly discourage that because another hunter could be in the woods stalking the same deer, and if you arrive on the scene and quickly fire a shot, you might never know they're there.
There was a turkey hunting incident in Bradford recently in which a hunter was shot after another person was road hunting, said Batchelder.
"It's unethical and we discourage it at every opportunity," he said.
Another example of something that's legal but unethical is shooting a mother bear that has a cub with it, because the cub likely won't survive, said Batchelder.
Batchelder said he tries to instill these ethics in kids he meets when he goes to schools and camps.
Batchelder, 33, covers six towns that are part of the Northeast District: Barre, Berlin, Orange, Washington, Northfield and Williamstown.
Soon after being assigned to this area, Batchelder learned he had roots in Barre, including his great-grandparents on his father's side, who are buried in St. Monica Cemetery, he said.
"I had no idea all the Batchelders are buried here," he said.
Batchelder also has roots in law enforcement, another reason he became a game warden. One ancestor — he's pretty certain it's the great-grandfather buried in St. Monica — was a Washington County Deputy Sheriff, he said.
His brother is a border patrolman, and his father is a retired border patrolman, who is now a side judge in Orleans County. His grandfather was a customs inspector.
It was a game warden he met when he was a kid that first sparked Batchelder's interest in being a warden.
That was Norman Morreau, a "kind of legendary warden" in Coventry, Batchelder said.
It was Morreau's bearing that influenced Batchelder.
"He seemed like he carried himself very well," said Batchelder.
After graduating from North Country High School, Batchelder spent four years in the Coast Guard in New Jersey, Viriginia, Alaska, Washington and Hawaii.
Next it was Portland, Maine, where Batchelder got a degree in French from the University of Southern Maine. He thought he might become a school teacher, and picked French because "it was the only thing in high school I did well in," he said.
His language skills have actually come in useful as a game warden patroling Lake Champlain, he said, where many French-speaking Canadians travel.
"If I've got to work, I think this is the job to have," said Batchelder.
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