Residents who live in the eastern half of Cheyenne and Laramie County now have their very own game warden with the addition of a new position at the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
Garett Blair is the new East Cheyenne Senior Game Warden. In recent months, the Cheyenne game warden district was split into two game warden districts, creating East Cheyenne and West Cheyenne Senior Game Warden districts. This decision was based on the ever-growing workload of the district, which encompasses all of Laramie County. The county continues to grow and is approaching a population of 100,000 residents. At 2,685 square miles, it is one of the largest districts in the state.
The East Cheyenne Game Warden District runs from Interstate 25 east to Nebraska, south to the Colorado state line, and north to the Platte and Goshen county lines. It’s a lot of area to cover and will keep Game Warden Blair busy.
Blair grew up hunting and fishing in Coralville, Iowa. Since he was a child, he knew he wanted to be a game warden. “I really enjoyed being in the woods as a kid. I knew this was what I wanted to do since I was six or seven years old.” He pursued his passion by graduating from Iowa State University in 2018 with a degree in Animal Ecology and a minor in Criminal Justice. There was limited opportunity for hiring game wardens at the time he graduated so he applied for the police department in Ames, Iowa, where he served as an officer for three years.
While he shares the same duties as other Wyoming game wardens -- such as law enforcement and assisting with biological studies -- a large community such as Cheyenne offers additional challenges and responsibilities. Blair spends a large portion of his time on urban wildlife issues, nuisance wildlife, and vehicle collisions with wildlife. “While most game wardens address similar issues, the volume of calls is much greater in the Cheyenne area,” he said.
Blair especially enjoys public outreach and working to teach people about wildlife. “If I wasn’t in law enforcement I would probably be a teacher,” he said. He is already helping teach hunter education classes and especially enjoys teaching about firearms safety and wildlife conservation. “I have a real passion to protect wildlife. This is something I really care about,” he said.
