Game wardens work to help others safely have fun

By Sean Ammerman

Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008 | midnight

As Karen Welden approaches a group of Lake Mead boaters one weekend, she can tell from 100 yards away a law is being broken.

Her 13 years as a game warden for the Nevada Department of Wildlife has made her a virtual encyclopedia for all the boating violations on Lake Mead.

Welden stops her boat beside the father and asks him the age of his son, who is riding a nearby Jet Ski. As she suspects, his son is younger than 14 — the age requirement for riding alone on a personal watercraft. Plus, the child has not taken the boater education course, needed for boat operators born after 1983.

While Welden has the authority to hand a citation, she deems a warning to be more suitable.

"If we can teach someone about the laws here in Nevada, then a citation isn't always necessary," she said. "In their case, they didn't know the laws and now they do. But if I catch them again, they're getting a citation."

When Welden takes to the water for a typical eight-hour shift on the weekend, she deals with a variety of boaters. Some are novices heading out for the first time. Others may be intoxicated or be doing something far too dangerous, such as standing on the bow of the boat.

Most of the boaters she stops are friendly. Some may be less cordial after receiving a ticket.

"Besides everybody being hot, it seems like their attitudes get hotter," she said. "It seems like people's attitudes aren't very tolerant of anybody else, especially us, in this weather."

Throughout a typical busy weekend, game wardens will issue between 12 to 16 boating citations. Of the 1,514 boating citations issued in Nevada last year, 713 of them were for fishing without a license.

But Welden's job isn't simply enforcing the rules.

On Aug. 3, when storm clouds formed over the lake in a matter of minutes, Welden spent the afternoon making sure all boaters were off the waters or near the safety of a cove.

Such storms can be life threatening. As of Sept. 8, there have been three fatalities on Lake Mead in 2008.

Last year, Welden helped save a family whose boat had capsized in rough water.

"When those things happen, you just react," she said. "It's sort of a weird thing to say, but we just sort of kick into gear. We're highly trained. We go through accident education and boater safety courses, plus we're out here on our boats a lot."

Out of 17 game wardens in Southern Nevada, Welden is one of three women.

She trained one of the other women, Las Vegas resident Kristy Knight, who has experienced Welden's dedication to the job.

"This is a very diverse job," Knight said. "One day you'll be out on the water and the next you'll be investigating an accident or working in the field up north."

While game wardens spend most of their working hours in an outdoor recreational setting, lieutenant game warden David Pfiffner said the job is not laid back.

"Everybody looks at the job of a game warden and thinks it's fun," Pfiffner said. "Our wardens spend eight hours in the field making sure everyone else is having fun safely."

As more hunting seasons begin in October, Southern Nevada game wardens will head up north to help make sure the hunting goes smoothly.

All the while, game wardens maintain their duties of investigating boating accidents and controlling local wildlife.

"We have to be a jack of all trades," Welden said. "We have to know how to capture animals safely, like rattlesnakes or bobcats from people's homes," Welden said. "We have to know how to handle animals safely in addition to knowing all the boating, fishing and game laws and applying all of those. There's a lot of things you have to know but it's a lot of fun."

Sean Ammerman is a reporter for the Home News. He can be reached at 990-2661 or [email protected].