For DNR officer, this is home

New face minds Cloquet lakes, trails

`The timing wasn't great, two weeks before the birth of his second son, but the opportunity for Tony Elwell and his family was too good to pass up.

"Otherwise, chances of getting back here were slim," said Elwell, the new face of the Department of Natural Resources in Cloquet. "We'd have to wait years, and we've always wanted to come back to this area. So, I put in for it."

Elwell's request was granted, and he started as the conservation officer for the Cloquet station in September, leaving behind the prairie and agricultural lands around Thief River Falls - where his nearest DNR backup was 35 miles away. There is one lake in 4,000 square miles - it's manmade - and the snowmobile trails are carved mostly via ditches.

Elwell loved the northwestern part of the state, he said, but it was isolated and he was also eager to return to family history and connections in the northeast.

"Here, I've got two partners within five miles and another that's 10 miles away," he said of conservation officers in Brookston and West Duluth. "We work together a lot."

Elwell, 47, is in his fifth year with the DNR, having previously spent roughly a dozen years in the Army - first with the renowned 82nd Airborne Division, before several more years in special operations, deploying overseas in what he described as "a bunch of times."

"I tested well and I could have been just about anything in the military that I wanted to, and I wanted to be a paratrooper," he said of the 82nd. "It was a great experience - that division is a different breed than the rest of the Army. It's a different place to grow up, but I loved it."

Later, before graduating from Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College in law enforcement, Elwell spent time as a chef, working mostly banquets with hundreds of guests at the The Saint Paul Hotel. He now finds that he cooks more for pleasure and family than he ever did while working in the industry.

"Any ingredient in the world you can think of, they could get it," he said of the hotel. "Great pay, great benefits, great people to work with, and I was miserable. I knew there was something else I needed to do in life."

His wife thought the same thing. They met at the hotel restaurant, but both chose alternate paths. She's a pharmacist now, and they have sons aged 2 and 8 months.

Elwell said he always wanted to be a game warden.

"I spent my life hunting and fishing early on, camping, canoeing, just being outdoors," he said. "It's kind of a coat of arms for people that live in Minnesota. It goes with being from here."

Outdoor patrol

He noted how a conservation officer has got all of the law enforcement authority of a regular police officer, with added responsibilities of regulatory authority associated with land conservation, and fishing, hunting, boating and ATV licenses. Conservation officers can also enter onto private land if there's suspicion of something such as baiting.

"Safety, through enforcing laws, that's our primary purpose," Elwell said.

Whether it's an unregistered snowmobile, a trapper out of season, a drunk boat operator, or an angler taking fish over the limit, Elwell outlined the checklist he considers when he encounters a situation: 1) Is it a safety issue? 2) Is it having a detrimental effect on the resources? And, 3) Is it fair to law-abiding citizens?

"If they are putting themselves or other people in danger, there's probably going to be enforcement taken," Elwell said, adding that most people he's encountered have been pleased to see him.

"There are people I've run into four or five times already in four or five months," Elwell said. "And there are people I probably will never see."

He's already put 1,000 miles on his snowmobile this winter, and expects plenty more. He can hop onto a trail outside his home in Esko and hit every one of the lakes in his coverage area.

A month ago, he was stopped at an intersection of snowmobile trails outside Cromwell. He spotted an operator on a "slick" sled, featuring no registration or stickers. The man said he'd never before encountered someone from the DNR.

"The majority of the funding of these trails come from our registrations and if somebody is out with an unregistered machine or expired machine on a trail, the way I see it is they're stealing from everybody else that paid their money so we can have these trails," Elwell said.

He stresses education as much as enforcement, and has been making a point of offering training and talking safety with ATV, snowmobile, shooting and sports clubs, as well as Scouts and students.

Outreach

He wants young outdoor adventurers, in particular, to have good encounters with law enforcement, before negative perceptions are formed. In February, he spoke at the Queen of Peace Catholic School program on ice fishing on Chub Lake. Elwell talked to the students about ice safety and invasive species and answered questions on licensing and fishing rules.

He met a newspaper reporter at the clubhouse for the Wood City Riders Snowmobile Club, located at the Cloquet Carlton County Airport.

"I can't say enough about our clubs in the area and the amount of work they've put in to get the trails back up," Elwell said. "We had all that wet snow and downed trees, it was tough for them to get things opened up, but they got it done."

During his first winter at the Cloquet station, Elwell said he's learned from residents that this season has been anomalous for the sheer volume of snow it has produced.

"It's been a good year for snowmobilers, not so much for ice fishermen, though," Elwell said, describing how the heavy snow pack early cracked ice and caused a slushy base layer which has presented challenges throughout the winter.

"A lot of people don't want to bring their big houses out this year," Elwell said.

As far as deer, he said now is the time of year older and weaker deer will succumb to starvation.

"It's the way it's been happening for hundreds of thousands of years," Elwell said. "It's the ebb and flow of the way things are."

Regarding deer feeding, he knows it happens, but noted there's a ban on deer feeding in Carlton County as it tries to prevent the arrival of chronic wasting disease. Any encounters related to deer feeding are generally friendly and won't produce a ticket.

"Unless it's an ongoing thing, it's more education and explaining that the reality is feeding is not good for deer," Elwell said.

Ultimately, Elwell strives to create good habits in the outdoors.

"People that are safe aren't generally breaking other laws, either," Elwell said, a final pearl of wisdom before hitting the trail.