February 21, 2024 |
Photo – Game Warden Kim Olson – Courtesy WY Game and Fish Department
Baggs Senior Game Warden Kim Olson has been named the 2023 Shikar-Safari Wildlife Officer of the Year for Wyoming.
The Shikar-Safari Club International is a conservation-based organization formed 1952 that awards officers who contribute to wildlife conservation and law enforcement across the United States and Canada.
This year, Wyoming Game and Fish Baggs Game Warden Kim Olson was selected to receive the award. Olson said each year, the Shikar-Safari Club International chooses a game warden from every state and Canadian province to receive the award. Olson said being chosen by the SSCI is the best recognition a game warden can receive.
Olson has served as a Wyoming game warden for 18 years, spending the last 13 years in Baggs. The game warden said she didn’t intend to become a wildlife law enforcement officer. Olson said she originally wanted to be a biologist, but after a nine-year stint in Utah, she decided not to change careers.
Olson said after spending nine years in Utah, she took five years off to raise her two young daughters. Afterwards, Olson began working for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
Olson said she spent four years in Rawlins before transferring to Baggs. The game warden said she has plenty of work to do in the Baggs area.
Bigfoot99 asked Olson if she had any advice for someone interested in beginning a career as a game warden. Olson said the job requires a dedication to wildlife management and law enforcement. If a person possesses those qualities, Olson said, then being a game warden is a good career.
Receiving the 2023 Shikar-Safari Wildlife Officer of the Year award allows Olson to choose one of two rewards. She can take part in an officer exchange program in Colorado or attend the North American Wildlife Enforcement Officers Association annual meeting in British Columbia, Canada.
Because she works on the Colorado Wyoming border, Olson said she chose to attend the NAWEOA meeting.
Olson will be presented with her Shikar-Safari Wildlife Officer of the Year award at the March 12th and 13th Game and Fish Commission meeting in Pinedale.
