“(I’m just) looking to see to make sure that it’s actually true,” Bourgeois said. So that, you know, he actually has a beaver problem. But he sent me pictures. He’s got a problem.”

When he went down the road Bourgeois was told to go down, the man who filed the complaint was driving down towards his truck and lowered his window down. After some discussion about where the beaver problem was, the man led the officer down a road towards the problem. They drove, then walked on dirt trails with large pebbles all around and puddles of muddy water pooled in the middle.

After a small trip, Bourgeois saw what he had seen in the pictures. Fresh twigs, and large pieces of lumber that blocked a waterway that originated from a large pond. The beaver wasn’t present, but the officer could tell the disturbance was made by an animal. It didn’t take long for Bourgeois to go back to his vehicle and issue a trapping permit.

“We’ll give him a permit,” Bourgeois said. “And it just says that you can trap the beaver out of season and then either they’ll do it or they can hire people to come and do it. And then they’ll just come in and they’ll trap the beaver and we’ll be done with it.”

News Photo by Mike Gonzalez Alex Bourgeois investigates a beaver dam that was mentioned in a filed complaint for a quarry on Wessel Road on Tuesday.

Bourgeois is only one of two COs in Alpena County. His job is on par with police officers in that he can ticket and arrest people for obstructions of the law. At the same time, it’s different in many ways since a CO deals with obstructions pertaining to the outdoors, hunting, fishing, and anything relating to nature.

Bourgeois was not into the idea of a career in law enforcement two years ago. He wanted to go into physical therapy as an assistant. But, after his father’s CO friend recommended this job, he seized the opportunity and applied.

“When I looked into it, I said, ‘Wait, I get to ride quads and boats, and, you know, pop out of the woods and catch this guy shooting deer at night,'” Bourgeois said. “That sounds cool, actually.”

When he first applied, Bourgeois didn’t get the job but he decided to go into the Macomb County police academy to train as an officer. He worked in Royal Oak for one year as a police officer, but as soon as he saw an opportunity to be a conservation officer, he reapplied.

This time he got in.

News Photo by Mike Gonzalez Alex Bourgeois investigates tossed out tires and a couch near the Harris-Alpena trail on Tuesday.

Now, Bourgeois is 23 years old and one year into the CO position. His work hours vary between small four hour shifts to staggering 16 to 20 hour days. It doesn’t bother him, though, as he said he loves his job.

“I love going to work every day,” Bourgeois said as he drove down M-32 to check on a littering complaint. “I really do. There’s not a day where I’m like, “I don’t want to go to work.” Like, I literally love my job. I work more than I should because I love it so much.”

He said he loves the job because it’s almost like a “cat and mouse thing.” Bourgeois explained that as a CO, every case, arrest, and citation is started by one officer and finished by the same officer. Because of this, every situation feels rewarding for him.

No citations were given out Tuesday afternoon, but Bourgeois talked with a multitude of fishers and kayakers to make sure they were following regulations and had licenses. For the kayakers that were getting off at the Duck Park Wildlife Sanctuary Kayak Launch, the DNR officer wanted to make sure they had a floatable device and a kayak operator license.

Every situation is different and requires a level of people skills and, sometimes, luck.

“A lot of our job is planning and time management,” Bourgeois said. “Sometimes it’s just, you know, the right place at the right time. You literally just get lucky. You’ll walk up and you’re like, ‘Oh, no one here has licenses, or everyone here has got an overlimit of fish.’ I didn’t plan on busting you, I just walked out and here we are.

But then other times you spend months beforehand, especially deer stuff. Like, we’ll literally scout for months.”

A lot of Bourgeois’ cases are things tipped off to him by people observing an issue or it may be someone he’s talked to and built a connection with. Throughout the day Tuesday, the CO never started a conversation by asking for peoples’ licenses.

Instead, he asked simple questions about their day outdoors, building a relationship of trust before asking to see papers. Those that try to briskly dismiss the questions cause Bourgeois to grow suspicious, leading him to assume they’re hiding something.

He said one of the things he learned at his police academy is that “we’re paid to be curious and respectful, but curious.” His work consists of conversations and investigative work, which was never the case when he was a police officer.

“You’d go in and make a report on (a crime), you’d send it off to your detectives and you’d never hear about it again,” Bourgeois said. “Let’s say (you know) one of the farmers right here is shooting deer at night to save his crops. You know you can’t do that. And so you know he’s doing it, you can never catch them. So you’re sitting out there at night, waiting and waiting, and never catching him. And it becomes personal because you’re like, ‘Oh, he’s outsmarting me. I need to catch him.

“I just love it. I love that chase.”

Bourgeois and his partner plan to work around the Michigan Brown Trout Festival this week and check for any issues on-land and in Thunder Bay.