Red shirt, green truck

Cufaude joins Wyoming Game and Fish as regional wildlife biologist

Locals have likely seen a new face wearing the familiar red shirt at the gas station, filling up the equally familiar green truck. Teal Cufaude, who served as a game warden for West Rawlins for three years, became the new wildlife biologist for the Laramie Region - Saratoga effective Sept. 1 after Will Schultz accepted a position in Cheyenne.

"One of the big things was, it presented an opportunity to me to kind of evolve as a wildlife professional. I had been a game warden for a little over 6 years and this was just, really, a prime opportunity for me to expand my skills as a wildlife professional. Be involved in some different aspects of wildlife management that I hadn't been involved with or hadn't been as involved with as a game warden," said Cufaude.

Before her three years as game warden in West Rawlins, the new wildlife biologist was also a game warden in North Gillette for two years following her training in Sheridan.

"I started my career in Wyoming, in Sheridan. When you get employed with Game and Fish as a game warden, you start off as a trainee of sorts and you can rove around a region. So I roved around the Sheridan region, predominantly doing watercraft enforcement when I first started and then my first senior game warden district was in North Gillette," Cufaude said.

Wyoming, however, wasn't always Cufaude's home even if wildlife management was in her blood. Originally from Michigan, she was hired by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) shortly before she graduated.

"I got a degree in Wildlife Management, Ecology and Research ... it was a four year degree from University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point, so I'm not a Wyoming native. I grew up in upper Michigan, went to school in Wisconsin. Both my parents are wildlife professionals as well. My mom is an aquatic biologist and my dad's a forester and they both when to Stevens Point in Wisconsin. I was hired in my last semester of school with Wyoming Game and Fish," said Cufaude.

Now that she's in Saratoga, Cufaude is in the same region as her husband, Mark Cufaude, the Saratoga Habitat and Access Biologist who works with Pennock and Grizzly Wildlife Habitat Management Areas (WHMA) in Saratoga and Baggs, respectively.

"To get two positions within the same community is pretty spectacular when you're in the natural resources and wildlife profession," said Cufaude.

Changing roles within the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Cufaude goes from being the sole game warden for West Rawlins to working with three different game wardens across a similar area.

"My district extends from the Platte Valley all the way up to the Shirley Mountains so I don't just stop at the Platte Valley. I go all the way up north of that Medicine Bow country, Hanna country. I'm basically in charge, taking the lead of collecting wildlife data. Of course, we get help from our game wardens like Biff (Burton), Ryan Kenneda, also Dylan Bergman ... over in Medicine Bow," Cufaude said. "I take the lead with wildlife population data collection and, of course with help from them, collect that wildlife data and then, primarily, I'll be analyzing that population data that we gather to help inform our seasons, our hunting seasons, herd objectives, things like that."

Starting shortly before deer hunting season, Cufaude wasted no time in jumping into her new role as she set up check stations both in the Brush Creek/Hayden Ranger District parking lot and at the processors down in Encampment.

"As a wildlife biologist, our primary goal this hunting season was to collect disease samples, and primarily Chronic Wasting Disease samples, from our cervids which are moose, elk and deer," said Cufaude. "So, I was pretty much at the processors down in Encampment, kind of split my time between Encampment River Processing and Merrills (Meat Company). They were kind enough to allow me to just kind of set up station there and check folks that were successful coming into the processors and collecting disease samples from harvested critters there."

Two weeks after Cufaude began her new job as wildlife biologist, the Ryan Fire crossed into Carbon County following its initial start in Jackson County, Colo. The fire forced the closure of elk area 13 and deer area 81, but Cufaude saw that many hunters were able to find success despite the closures.

"The closure didn't get lifted until Oct. 18, so a good portion of our deer area 81 was closed for the deer season, so folks were able to kind of able to kind of work around that closure. I heard of some really good deer getting killed and I also checked some really good deer getting killed on the periphery of the fire. Folks were able to get in there and have some luck," Cufaude said. "It did open up, though, during the elk season so our general elk hunters were able to go into part of the area that was closed because of the fire and I checked quite a few folks who were having some really good success in the burn itself with elk that had kind of stayed in the burn area or moved back into the burn area and then folks that were just on the periphery of that burn where elk had maybe moved out of that burn area. So, some pretty good success kind of along the burn."

Like most employees for the WGFD, Cufaude doesn't have a normal office or normal office hours. While she has a land line for people to call, it is far more likely that she will be seen out in the country surrounding eastern Carbon County or at a gas station filling up her truck.

"Sometimes my best contacts are the pumps at the gas stations because they see the green truck and the red shirt," said Cufaude. "That's the prime time to get to know folks. If people see me in the field, wave me down. I'd like to introduce myself to as many people as I can, put a face to the name."

 

Reader Comments(0)