Bates is new conservation officer in Tripp County

By Dan Bechtold /Editor

Dillon Bates is the new Game, Fish and Parks conservation officer in Tripp County. He is also serving Todd and Mellette Counties.

Originally from Wilber, Neb., southwest of Lincoln, Neb., Bates started his new job in Winner on July 24.

The GFP office in Winner is located in the city building on Monroe Street. “Growing up in southern Nebraska I had heard of Winner and the pheasant hunting tradition. I would hear people say they were taking a family trip to Winner to go pheasant hunting.”

The young conservation officer finds it cool that he is stationed in an area that has such a rich hunting tradition.

Since an early age Bates has wanted to be a game warden. “I could not tell you what sparked my interest in high school,” he said. His family took vacations to national parks and seeing the park rangers, being outside and being able to help people kindled that interest in Bates.

“Every job I have had after college made me want this job more and more. I just kept getting experience.”For Bates, the big draw is getting to be outside every day, getting to help people with hunting and fishing and helping more people get interested in hunting.

Bates graduated from Wilber Clatonia High School in 2012. Both of his parents are educators. His father is the high school history teacher and head wrestling coach and his mother is a title teacher in the elementary school.

In high school, Bates played football, wrestled and ran track where he was a hurdler.

He received a college football scholarship to play at Doane University in Crete, Neb. He played college football all four years and was a safety on the college team.In 2016 he graduated from college with a degree in sociology. After college, he worked for the Iowa Conservation Corps for a six month seasonal job.

Bates then took a job with Utah Conservation Corps in Cedar City, Utah. The conservation corps was contracted out by the National Park Service. “We did a lot of back country stuff. We would hike into an area, camp for 8 to 9 days doing work such as building trails, cutting down trees and doing stream restoration. Bates worked at this job in Utah for 10 months.

He worked for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources as a natural resource technician doing wetland work, planting food plots for wildlife.

Following the job in Iowa he was hired as a fisheries technician in Ft. Collins, Colo for seven months and then worked as an elk feed ground technician in Pinedale, Wyo.While in Wyoming Bates applied for a job with the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks. All these job just added to the experience to make him a better conservation officer.

In November of 2019 Bates started training with GFP.

He did his field training in Lemmon before being stationed in Winner.

Since he has been in Winner he as been getting his name out to local residents and contacting a lot of landowners. He has checked all the game production areas in Tripp County and wants to work on increasing the walk in areas before the pheasant season starts.

When asked what he wants people to know about him, he said: “I am here to help. Feel free to contact me. Anyway I can make fishing and hunting better and improve access is important to me.”

Persons can contact Bates at 1-605-730-1576.