Student Loan Debt?

[dmccarty]

Yes, it can be, Forest Service too. A girl I went to high school with was murdered in the back country working for the Forest Service. Prior she had worked at the DNR if memory serves.

I have not seen the numbers recently, but wildlife officers/park rangers/etc had a higher rate of assaults than city law enforcement.

Wildlife officers do not have backup nearby like a city officer does, medical help is a long time and distance away, people are armed and know, or think they know, how to use those weapons and there are not likely to be any witnesses. Many a rural sheriff deputies and highway patrol officers have the same problems. Having said that, many people want to be wildlife officers.

 

[dmccarty]

...
Last time I was on the water it was surprising to number of instances of law enforcement both at the access road, launch site and on the water.

I asked one at the launch about it and he said lots of impaired boating accidents from drinking is why.

They also check registration, safety gear and safe operation and now operators are being licensed which is new.
...

The Federal government used to pay state and local agencies for boat based law enforcement. I would assume they still do and it would not surprise me if they have increased funding. That Federal money influenced how much land vs boat patrols were done, for better or worse.

 

[MossRoad]

Several years ago we were spending the day with one of our daughter's boyfriend's family. They had a nice speedboat and jet ski and took us to a reservoir in southern Indiana. We got pulled over on the lake by the Army Corp Of Engineers. (we were towing a disabled jet ski back to shore). They inspected the boat, and although we had enough life jackets for the people on the boat at the time, we had four more people on shore. They loaned us 4 life jackets for the day and told us to drop them off at the guard shack entrance on the way home.

 

[milkman636]

That's funny. I've never been checked by an Indiana CO in the 46 years that I've had to have a fishing license. I've fished in Michigan maybe 30 times in that same 46 years and have been checked maybe 15 times! Especially when ice fishing.

There are allegedly 214 COs in Indiana. I saw one a few years ago. I was fishing in a canoe. Had 3 poles out. He went over and made 2 kids on inner tubes go back to shore, and gave two ladies in kayaks tickets for no life preservers. Never came closer than a few hundred yards from me.

I bought a lifetime comprehensive Indiana fishing license in 1999. I've been hoping to show it to a CO ever since.

Wow, a lifetime license, that would be great.

Michigan has a lot of enforcement on the waters of inland lakes in the southern lower peninsula and the popular trout and salmon streams. They’ll be very visible during spawns. I was even checked once last summer while fishing crappie with two of my boys on a tiny 43 acre lake with a dirt ramp. My little 16’ tin boat was the only one on the lake and the COs put their boat in just to check us out.

I’ve only been checked once in my entire life on Lake St. Clair, the St Clair River, Lake Huron, northern Lake Michigan, and Lake Superior combined, and those are the waters I’ve fished the most in my life.

As for hunting I have yet to come across a CO in the wild. I think they’re focused mainly on the popular state managed waterfowl and game areas, and basically complaint driven for the less popular areas.

The state parks and various trail systems keep them pretty busy too.

 

[MossRoad]

Wow, a lifetime license, that would be great.

...

Yeah, when it was offered, I did the math in 1999 and if license fees never increased, it would have paid itself off by the time I hit 54. They went up a bit, so it paid off earlier.

Now the bad part.

Indiana did away with lifetime license because they stated losing federal funding. Why? States receive federal funding for fish and wildlife based partly on how many licenses they sell annually. So everyone that purchased a lifetime fishing or hunting license one time is now permanently out of the count that generates funding.

So unfortunately, I agree with Indiana's decision to do away with the lifetime licenses.

 

[MossRoad]

...

As for hunting I have yet to come across a CO in the wild....

 

[ultrarunner]

Yeah, when it was offered, I did the math in 1999 and if license fees never increased, it would have paid itself off by the time I hit 54. They went up a bit, so it paid off earlier.

Now the bad part.

Indiana did away with lifetime license because they stated losing federal funding. Why? States receive federal funding for fish and wildlife based partly on how many licenses they sell annually. So everyone that purchased a lifetime fishing or hunting license one time is now permanently out of the count that generates funding.

So unfortunately, I agree with Indiana's decision to do away with the lifetime licenses.

You could still buy an annual for the cause?

 

[paulsharvey]

Florida had half price in all licenses between like Sept and Jan 1. I thought about buying the life time sportsman gold for my son, But it's not cheap, like $600 even at half price, and I don't know that he will live in Florida 5 or 10 years from now.

 

[MossRoad]

You could still buy an annual for the cause.

It would be $34 for a fishing license with trout stamp.
However, in one more year, I'll be 64 years old. Anyone resident 64 or older is eligible for a senior fish for life license for $23 that coves all species. So that wouldn't contribute to the federal funding count either.

They do offer a voluntary fishing license for just $3 a year for anyone that doesn't need a fishing license. That one adds to the count for federal funding. So maybe I'll hit that one.

 

[dmccarty]

I got checked twice when I was a teenager while hunting. Well, I was checked once, the officers checked my dad who was in camp while I was up on a ridge. I heard the officers drive in and talk to my dad. Amazing how far sound can travel. I don't ever remember getting checked while fishing.

The wife and I were out kayaking one day and we ended up heading to shore around sunset. We obviously had our required safety equipment and had turned on our PFD mounted lights since the sun had set. The officers were waiting at the boat ramp for boats to return. There was a guy in a sailboat with no engine and the wind had died hours before so he was barley making way. He did not have a light producing device on board, I don't think he had intended to be out after sunset but the wind just died on him.

I don't think the officers wrote him up but gave him some safety instruction/education and showed him how a light on a sail REALLY makes the boat noticeable.