Some teenagers have a hard time figuring out what they want to be when they grow up. Others, like MN DNR Conservation Officer (CO) Trent Seamans, have a good idea of what they want to do and are eventually able to make it happen.
“I had wanted to be a CO since I was probably 14 or 15, when I first started getting into hunting,” says Seamans, who has worked out of the Big Lake station for the past three years.
“I got checked by a CO, Craig Miska, and he said it was the best job in the world because you always get to be outside.”
After that brief encounter, Seamans set his eyes on working for the Minnesota DNR in order to protect the beautiful outdoors that he personally cherishes.
He says his parents always encouraged him to follow his dreams and find a job that he would love and be passionate about. Since he thoroughly enjoys the outdoors, the DNR seemed to be the right path to pursue.
He originally went to school and received a four year degree in Fisheries and Wildlife, and he found himself working in the Parks and Trails department for the DNR. Stationed at Itasca State Park, he was able to work as a naturalist and run programs for the park visitors. But soon he realized he would need law enforcement training to pursue the CO path, so he signed up for the Conservation Officer Pre-Employment Education Program (CO PREP).
It’s a relatively new program that helps to recruit people of diverse backgrounds into the ranks of the department’s Conservation Officers.
“I had a biology type background and the DNR was able to give me the law enforcement training,” says Seamans, who started his career as a CO in the Rochester area. “So when you put the two things together, you meet in the middle as a CO.”
Busy Station
Seamans enjoys working his station, with boundary lines running along I-94 from Clearwater to Albertville in Wright County and then a vast swath of Sherburne County including all of Becker, Big Lake and most of Clear Lake.
“I think the best term to describe this station is busy,” says Seamans, who notes that he has ten lakes with public accesses in his area.
“We have a lot of population here with the locals and it is also an easy day trip from the metro area.”
The diversity of the area means he wears many hats in performing the duties of his position. There are Walleyes being targeted and opportunities for panfishing, as well as great smallmouth bass fishing on the Mississippi River. Add in a bunch of public land in the Sand Dunes State Forest and the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge and he has a lot of land and water to cover.
“I get pulled in a lot of different directions,” says Seamans.
Unique River
Seamans marvels at the uniqueness of having about 25 miles of the Mississippi River within his patrol boundary.
“There’s a lot to look at and a lot of resource there,” says Seamans, pointing out the large, undeveloped areas owned by the power plants.
“There’s pockets where you feel like you are out in the wilderness. In a short stretch you can see smallmouth fishing, duck hunting and an otter swimming here and a beaver trap over there.”
On the Wright County side of the river, he also has several Wildlife Management Areas to patrol. With so many areas to cover, he comes in contact with a lot of people.
In one recent case, he received a call from a hunter who claimed a dead swan had drifted down the river and into his decoys. The caller reported he had heard shooting up river after some goose calling by other hunters. As Seamans drove to the area to investigate, his radio crackled with a report from a local landowner who called dispatch regarding that same hunter as being the one who shot the swan.
“It turns out, the original caller was the one who shot the swan and he was going to send me on a wild goose chase up the river,” says Seamans. “When you lie to us about those things, then we’re going to use the full extent of the law.”
Reports and Covid
According to Seamans, this year has been by far the busiest he has seen in his five years on the job. License sales have soared and there are just more people utilizing the outdoors because of the natural social distancing it provides. But with more people out and about comes more reports of issues.
Littering is one of the most common issues he deals with on a regular basis. People sometimes dump full bags of garbage in the Sand Dunes or else they leave garbage behind after camping. He says he does his best to find out the responsible parties and hold them accountable.
When it comes to fish and game violations, he sees fishing with extra lines and fishing without a license.
“When it comes to making a mistake, we can try and work with people,” says Seamans. “But everyone in the state pretty much knows you need a license to go fishing.”
The Covid pandemic has also had an effect on his daily job duties. While there are fewer safety classes to teach, there has been a big uptick in the number of reports from concerned homeowners.
“There are many more people working at home and they look out the window and see the wildlife,” says Seamans. “We’ve had many more calls about injured wildlife than we’ve ever had before.”
Advice for Beginners
While Seamans does encounter people misusing the resource, he also sees the vast majority of people doing what they are supposed to do to enjoy Minnesota’s natural resources.
His advice to people who are taking up a new activity is to find someone with experience.
“The best advice I can give to people is to pair up with somebody who knows what they are doing,” says Seamans. “The regulations book is a great resource, but having someone with experience who knows how to hunt or fish is the golden ticket.”
After all, a respect for the outdoors is what brought Seamans to his current profession. Every day he gets to see people pursuing their passions while he lives out his dream.
Turns out, CO Miska was right. Seamans, too, thinks he has the best job in the world.
