NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Applications are now being accepted for the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) Warden Academy at Butte College in Oroville.

The academy will begin in January 2013 and is scheduled to graduate in September 2013.

The application deadline is Nov. 4, 2011.

The deadline for current peace officers to apply for a shortened lateral academy is Sept. 16, 2011, for an academy scheduled to begin in September 2012.

An increase in the number of applications received is expected as a result of the first season of “Wild Justice,” a reality show that premiered on the National Geographic Channel in November 2010.

The popular show chronicles California game wardens’ efforts to combat poachers and polluters.

“'Wild Justice' has given many hopeful candidates a clear picture of the intensive law enforcement nature of a game warden,” said DFG recruiter Lt. Jeff Longwell. “Game wardens are charged with ensuring public safety, investigating illegal sales of wildlife and parts thereof, protecting the state from pollution, enforcing habitat protection laws, fighting illegal drug trafficking, keeping the homeland secure and responding during natural disasters.”

A typical day for a California game warden is as diverse as the state’s fish and wildlife.

Wardens have the opportunity to patrol ocean, desert, mountain and valley environments, as well as California’s urban areas. They frequently work independently and conduct full-scale law enforcement investigations.

Wardens employ everything from all-terrain vehicles to jet skis to snowmobiles while on patrol, and spend much of a typical day making contact with Californians in the great outdoors.

DFG has a dive team and uses K-9 partners as well. Environmental crimes and pollution incidents also fall under the purview of game wardens. Annually, wardens make contact with more than 295,000 people and issue more than 15,000 citations for violations of the law.

Successful lateral academy applicants will enter a 30-week program, followed by at least three, three-week long training assignments where they will work with a seasoned field training officer.

DFG’s academy at Butte College is Peace Officer Standards and Training certified. Cadets are trained to be police officers with specific emphasis on working as wardens.

In California, with 159,000 square miles that offer habitat and wildlife diversity unequaled by any other state, the average warden has a patrol district of more than 600 square miles.

The state has more than 1,100 miles of coastline, 30,000 miles of rivers and streams, 4,800 lakes and reservoirs, three desert habitat areas and scores of high mountain peaks.

More information and applications are available at www.dfg.ca.gov/enforcement/career/.

Applications are now being accepted online and must be postmarked by the due date for each category described above.

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