Game warden’s passion is the wild

CARROLLTON, Miss. (AP) - His office is ever-changing.

One day he might be camped out at the McIntyre Scatters and the next deep in the woods in Carroll County or on the Mississippi River.

That’s the life of a Mississippi wildlife conservation officer who covers six counties

Meet Tyler Murphy, who has devoted the last 10 years to help ensure compliance with the state’s game and fish laws and has helped protect Mississippi’s natural resources.

It’s a job for which the 46-year-old Carroll County resident has a strong passion.

“As someone who grew up hunting and fishing like I did, this is a job I always thought about,” said Murphy. “I like being outside in the wild, not tied down to a desk, so this is the perfect job for me. It never gets dull because no one day is like the other.”

Murphy patrols mainly in Leflore, Carroll and Sunflower counties. Although hunting season is his busiest time on the job, he said work never really slows down for game wardens in Mississippi.

“Deer and duck season gets kind of crazy because so many people come in here from out of town to hunt, adding more hunters while the number of wardens remains the same. But after hunting season, we go right into the crappie spawn, then the spring turkey season, then summer brings more fishing and boating activities, and before you know it dove season is here again in early September.”

Answering calls for nuisance alligators is also part of his job. During the active months, April through September, Murphy estimates he gets one call a week to remove a gator that has preyed upon or attempted to prey upon humans, pets or livestock, or an alligator that shows aggression and lack of fear of humans by regularly approaching human activity.

Leflore County has one of the highest concentrations of gators in the Delta, Murphy said.

“I?have gotten a call about gators in yards on River Road, and I have had to remove one from the old Federal Compress building” near downtown Greenwood, he said.

One of the oddest gator encounters came last year when he helped capture an 11-footer in the Eastgate Shopping Center parking lot at 3 a.m. Two years ago, Murphy relocated a 12-foot, 6-inch alligator taken out of the Browning Community.

One of his scariest encounters came several years ago when he got a call from a local commercial fisherman who had a big gator hung in one of his fishing nets in the Yazoo River.

“You talk about a crazy deal, reaching in there not knowing whether the gator is alive or not while dealing with the strong current of the river,” Murphy said.

Luckily for him, this 12-footer had already drowned.

“It’s pretty exciting for a while, but it quickly gets to be too much like work,”?he said of capturing gators.

There are other parts of his job that the public doesn’t see.

Game wardens serve as public relations representatives and teachers in the field because they have direct contact with hunters, fishermen and other outdoorsmen. They also serve as instructors for the hunting and boating safety programs put on by the state Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.

“We educate people on the ethical use of the outdoors, game and fish laws, firearms safety and woodsmanship and instruct people on the safe handling of boats, laws and regulations pertaining to use of public waters and boating ethics,” he said.

Murphy got his start in law enforcement working as a Leflore County sheriff’s deputy from 1999 until he became a game warden in 2007.

He liked his work as a deputy, but he felt a calling to become a game warden.

“I am an outdoors guy, always have been. I have a great job, where you see things most other people don’t,”?Murphy said. “I have the greatest job ever.

“I believe that’s the reason the pay isn’t that high, because if it was, everybody would want my job.”

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Information from: The Greenwood Commonwealth, https://www.gwcommonwealth.com