Canadian Subscribers Winter Issue Notice
We wish to inform our Canadian subscribers that due to the Canadian Postal strike, the issues of our Winter International Game Warden Magazine will unfortunately be delayed. Our printer is holding the magazines at their facility until I am notified that the strike is over and mail can be delivered again. The IGW staff appreciates your patience and your continued support of our magazine.
Winter 2024-25 Issue Now Available
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Ice Capade on Oil Creek
Bob Steiner, Retired Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission
It was half a lifetime ago, now. But on that late December day 38 years ago, for about seven minutes, this was half of a lifetime I wouldn’t have believed I was going to live to see. A light drizzle was falling after days of flooding. The afternoon was gray and the temperature was just above freezing. The early ice, which had frozen half a foot thick, had been lifted by the flood waters and stacked on the shoreline along raging Oil Creek, a stocked trout stream.
A new Delayed Harvest Artificial Lures Only Area (DHALO) in Oil Creek State Park, here in Venango County, would go into effect the first of January. I needed to get the signs up along the 1.6-mile stretch of stream so fishermen would be aware of the regulation changes. Since there were some folks opposed to the change from catch-and kill fishing, I thought it would be a good idea to use the stacked bank ice flows to post the signs out of reach. If the opponents to the regulation couldn’t reach the signs once the ice melted, they couldn’t tear them down. If they couldn’t tear them down, they couldn’t plead ignorance.
I crossed Oil Creek at the lower end of the DHALO on the railroad bridge and started upstream along the remote back side of the creek. Dressed in blue jeans, hip boots and several wool shirts, I proceeded, making good time, but quickly realized I would be lucky to get done with one side of the creek by dark. Around three o’clock in the afternoon, where the creek makes a 90-degree turn, I dropped down to the flat from the hillside. I was immediately confronted with what obviously had been a cauldron of churning ice blocks a day or two earlier. As the water receded it had settled in an area the size of several football fields. The area was covered with irregular, broken sheets of ice. A trickle of water a foot wide, Rattlesnake Run, flowed underneath.
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International Game Warden Magazine
IGW is a growing trade magazine dedicated to serving the professionals in natural resource and wildlife law enforcement. In our early years, primarily serving US and Canadian conservation officers, IGW became known as “THE trade publication of the profession” In North America.
Illinois Conservation 0fficer Don Hastings and his family launched IGW in 1984. although the idea had been percolating for years. Part of our founders’ vision was to create a means for officers to communicate with one another. Don credits a brave 1000 officers for IGWs early success _ they subscribed to the concept, and supported the effort, well before the first IGW Magazine was Published. In 1999, after producing 58 issues of the
magazine over 14 years. the Hastings retired for the second time and sold the magazine to Creative Street. The North American Wildlife Enforcement 0fficers Association (NAWEOA) took over with the fall 2002 issue and continues expanding with the gracious support of this profession and the public’s fascination with conservation heroes.
IGW has truly entered the international conservation arena. First, we are broadening our content to better reflect global conservation concerns. Second, we are actively expanding our international subscriber base to reach more conservation professionals. especially in areas where resources and training opportunities are limited.
IGW works closely with the US and Canadian concerns of NAWEOA, Federal Wildlife Officers Association. International Association of Natural Resource Crimestoppers and Canada National Park Warden Association in addition to state and provincial associations and agencies. We have recently forged a relationship with International Ranger Federation, an active force in advancing this profession throughout the world.
Our Focus
Our content is specific to the work and interests of Conservation enforcement. Regular columns include:
- firearms training
- communication
- patrols
- game warden book reviews
- a comprehensive digest of case investigations
- work outside North America
Longer Features address topics such as:
- dangerous animal or poacher situations
- forensics
- professional commentaries
- officer assaults
- animal human conflicts and trends
- a history of the profession
Each issue we publish detailed stories of big cases and busts- both to acknowledge officer’ good work and serve as training reference for other wardens and rangers.