Maine Game Warden - 2025

Location: Augusta,Maine,United States

CODE:  9511    PAY GRADE:  20 ($27.07 - $37.48 Per Hour) *

* This includes the $0.85 Market Pay Adjustment

MAINE WARDEN SERVICE

APPLICATION PERIOD

Opening Date: May 14, 2025
Closing Date: October 03, 2025

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT MAINE WARDEN SERVICE:

The Maine Warden Service dates back to 1880, when the first wardens were appointed to enforce laws giving Maine’s moose and deer their first legal protection. The service’s first enforcement action occurred on March 12, 1880 when two men were apprehended for killing a doe in closed season. From this modest beginning, the Maine Warden Service now has a complement of 124 uniformed members and is the largest of three bureaus in the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife. It consists of a control headquarters located in Augusta and five divisions with a varying number of districts. Division headquarters are located in Gray, Sidney, Bangor, Greenville, and Ashland. Each division is administered and supervised by a Lieutenant and sectional Sergeants. Warden districts cover the entire state; they are generally geographically smaller in southern Maine where the population is higher and larger in the more sparsely populated Northern sections.

Today, the Maine Warden Service is a modern, professional, highly effective law enforcement agency. Members are certified law enforcement officers who use state-of-the-art equipment, including four-wheel drive trucks, boats, snowmobiles, ATV’s, personal computers, a two-way radio repeater network, portable radios, fixed wing aircraft, and night vision equipment, in carrying out their responsibilities. In addition, the service maintains its own forensic mapping team, evidence recovery unit, dive team, K-9 unit, and aircraft fleet. These aircraft enable Wardens to patrol remote sections of their assigned districts, effectively respond to search and rescue situations, fish and wildlife enforcement, fish stocking, and oversee recreational boating activity.

GAME WARDEN JOB DESCRIPTION:

This is certified, uniformed, law enforcement work as a member of the Maine Warden Service, Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, protecting inland fish and wildlife resources and the safety of the public. A Game Warden’s work includes:

• Patrol an assigned area called a district. Patrolling is usually done alone in areas where there is a concentration of hunting, fishing, and trapping activity. While on patrol, Wardens inspect licenses as well as fish and wildlife possessed by individuals. Explain fish and wildlife, recreation, and environmental laws, rules, and regulations.  Patrol may be conducted on foot or by truck, boat, canoe, snowmobile, all-terrain vehicles (ATV’s), or airplane.
• Issue warnings and summonses and making arrests as necessary. In addition to enforcing fish and wildlife, recreation, and environmental laws, Wardens are empowered to enforce all other state laws.
• Conduct investigations, gathering evidence, writing reports, and testifying in court. Investigations may stem from citizen complaints or observed incidents of law violations, and may include complaints involving ATV’s, sick or nuisance wildlife, and landowner issues.
• Investigate hunting incidents and crashes involving recreational vehicles.
• Organize, directing, and/or participating in search and rescue operations. This is a priority requirement and may entail working on the recovery of drowning victims and other deceased persons.
• Working with biologists, animal control agents, and/or wildlife rehabilitators.

To be a successful Maine Game Warden, an individual must possess considerable knowledge of wildlife, hunting, fishing, trapping, and other related outdoor sports; a strong desire to work in law enforcement; self-initiative and a willingness to work out-of-doors in adverse weather conditions, often without assistance. In all cases, a Warden seeks to promote good public relations and compliance with all fish and wildlife regulations.

PREFERENCES:

Preference will be given to any candidate that currently holds an active, in good standing, Certification of Eligibility for Law Enforcement or any candidate that has passed the Law Enforcement Pre-Service training.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS TO APPLY FOR GAME WARDEN:

In order to qualify, you must:

• have a high school diploma or equivalent;
• be at least 21 years of age -OR- can be only 20 years of age and have completed an associate's d