Group honors efforts of local conservation officer

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August 3, 2012

Group honors efforts of local conservation officer

By JOE MAHONEY Staff Writer The Daily Star Fri Aug 03, 2012, 03:30 AM EDT

State Environmental Conservation Officer Vern Bauer said he began appreciating the great outdoors as a young boy during family outings to rural Delaware County.

A native of Queens who now patrols northern Delaware County, the 49-year-old Bauer said it was his father who introduced the hobbies he still enjoys: hiking, hunting and fishing.

"We always left the places we visited better than how we found it," he recalled. "If someone left worm tins or beer bottles around, you picked it up and took it out of there. Now, as a conservation officer, you can actually go and enforce the laws and do something about it. There is definitely a satisfaction factor."

For Bauer's dedication to protecting New York's natural resources, he was recently named the recipient of the 2011 "Officer of the Year" award from the Shikar-Safari Club International, a group of hunters that gives one such award per state annually. For the New York award, Bauer's colleagues were instrumental in selecting him.

"What was really nice about it is that you are picked by your peers," he said. "I'm one of about 300 conservation officers in the state, and they all do a good job. So it is a kind of humbling experience to get this award."

The 49-year-old Hartwick College graduate credited his father with instilling in him an appreciation of the environment and wildlife.

"My dad was a high school biology teacher, and so I was always an avid outdoorsman," said Bauer, an Arkville resident. "It was a natural progression to become a conservation officer so I could go out and protect the environment and watch out for the animals."

Bauer transferred to Delaware County -- part of the Department of Environmental Conservation's Region 4 -- after a stint patrolling northern Nassau County in Long Island. In Delaware County, as a 2000 graduate of the Environmental Conservation Police Academy, he would encounter more fish and game enforcement than in his earlier assignment.

DEC officials noted Bauer has been recognized for numerous high-quality Fish and Wildlife cases involving trout, deer, bear, turkey, waterfowl, timber rattlesnakes and bald eagles. They said he was responsible for two cases documented in the 2008-09 and 2011-12 state Hunting and Trapping Guides. The first involved the illegal killing of four deer and two turkeys. The other involved the illegal killing of six deer.

To develop information and gather evidence, Bauer has honed his interview skills and derives clues with help of a tracking dog and social media as well as DNA and ballistics testing, the officials said.

In addition to illegal poachers, he said he also keeps an eye out for midnight dumpers seeking to get rid of their garbage and debris under the cover of night.

"It is everything from one-timers to big companies that are dumping illegally," he said.

How he spends his work day is often shaped by the season.

"By keeping your ear to the ground and gathering intel, you know where and when you have to be out there," he said. "It's not only fish and game enforcement; it's the whole ball of wax. We wear a lot of different hats on this job. There is no one else doing our job. No one knows better than a conservation officer when to be out there."