Fish and Game Honors COs

Two Idaho Fish and Game conservation officers earned the department's Conservation Officer of the Year Award for 2004. Mountain Home Senior Conservation Officer Bob Sellers and Senior Conservation Officer Brian Marek of Caldwell were both recognized for outstanding performance. Director Steve Huffaker presented the awards. District Conservation Officer Bill London said Sellers "is the epitome of a field naturalist. He knows every bear, bird, bush, and bug in his patrol area." London said Sellers has protected Idaho's wildlife through active enforcement efforts, vigilant patrol, tenacious investigations, and through professional comment on Fish and Game season setting, public lands grazing management and wrong-class license investigations for 26 years. Bob Sellers is the Ôeye' in the hills and forests of his patrol area. Bob teams up with state and federal enforcement officers and biologists, military personnel, landowners and private sportsman's groups to effectively preserve, protect and perpetuate Idaho's wildlife." Huffaker said Marek is "an example of what an ambassador of Fish and Game Department is really about. Huffaker noted that Marek had, in the last year, contacted well over 2,000 hunters and anglers and detected more than 100 violations in his Caldwell patrol area. He regularly assists other regional staff including many hours spent in a helicopter as a trained net gunner and observer for big game and waterfowl surveys. Marek was praised for his participation in outreach programs, including the Nampa police activities league, Cast For Kids, National Guard Kids Outdoor clinic, Get Hooked on Fishing Not On Drugs, Cub Scouts, Hunter Education classes, and Bass Club., and numerous local high and middle school events as well as a variety of other civic groups.