Brian Schwartz and Family
State Park Warden
Flathead Lake

Favorite Part of the Job?

Brian: I enjoy doing patrols out to Wild Horse Island you can't beat that work environment. I enjoy the public contact and meeting people who come to our state parks from different areas.

Nick: I like the flexibility, it's not a typical 9-5pm office job. We provide a key service to our visitors and Parks' staff. I like the job variety. I can be out patrolling on a boat or helping visitors with directions, to patrolling the campgrounds at night. One aspect of the job I really enjoy is talking with the fishermen and seeing what they're using to catch fish, what's working and not working.

"..training was life-changing"

Nick Scholz
State Park Warden
Cooney State Park

Brian: The training was life changing for me. We attended the law enforcement academy for firearms training and learned how to pull people over safely in a vehicle. We had additional training through the field training officer program, where we work with game wardens and observe how they work. It's an intense training with on the job and written-research assignments.

Nick: The training was definitely life changing and very challenging. It requires you to really step out of your comfort zone. The bottom line is there were weeks July and August during training where I worked 60 hours every week and that can really be grueling, but character building and rewarding in the fact that you're working to protect a resource and you're working directly in the field to make sure that visitors are out having a safe and good time in our parks.

Funny Moment?

Brian: Part of my training is working with other divisions so I can better understand what they do. Since bears sometimes visit State Parks, I had the opportunity to work with and process a live 386-pound grizzly bear. It was sedated and blind folded and I was asked to help take its vitals. Specifically, the biologist asked me to clamp its tongue. I said "really?" I reluctantly put my hand into the bear's mouth and it, of course, exhaled right at that moment. Let's say I moved away pretty quickly.

Nick: A visitor found a cell phone and handed it to me and I got to the truck and the phone rang and on the screen it said "the devil" is calling. I started texting with "the devil" to try and explain who I was and where I found the phone and "the devil" didn't believe me.