FWP

Montana Fish & Wildlife Internship Portfolio
Nate Hicks
August 25, 2016

Contents
Overview of Field Experience ........................................................................................................ 3
Duties and Responsibilities............................................................................................................. 4
Correlation Between In-Class and Practical Experience .............................................................. 13
SWOT Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 14
Evaluated SWOT Analysis ........................................................................................................... 15
Hard Copies of Material................................................................................................................ 16
Internship Contract Goals ............................................................................................................. 16

Overview of Field Experience
This summer I was hired by the Fish, Wildlife & Parks Department of the state of
Montana. The role of the Fisheries Department is to manage, create, and maintain fishing access
sites throughout the state. The headquarters
that I reported to was located in the southeast
corner of Montana in Miles City. The
headquarters was responsible for conservation
in the entire southeast region of the state
(region 7).
I was hired as a conservation aide. This position consisted of two parts. For the first half
of my internship, I worked at a fishing access site during the paddlefish season. The second half
of the internship was spent sampling ponds, reservoirs, and rivers. In addition, I got firsthand
experience working with the state’s radio telemetry project on the Yellowstone River.
I reported to the head regional fisheries biologist, Caleb Bollman. He then reported to the
department head for our area of the state, Mike Backus. The main office in Miles City consisted
of the fishing biologists, wildlife biologists, park maintenance staff, and the game wardens of the
area. Many times specialists, such as small mammal biologists, shared the same office space with
me and the other members of the department.
The Miles City Fisheries office falls under the supervision of the Chief of Staff and
ultimately to the Governor of Montana. It coordinates with other offices in the state including
Human Resources, Wildlife, Parks, Enforcement, as well as Communication and Education.

Duties and Responsibilities
My duties and responsibilities varied as the summer moved forward. When I started, I
worked on an odd schedule of three full days on, followed by three full days off. The reason for
this was due to the location and liabilities of the workplace. The paddlefish season continued in

force until a certain quota of fish were caught or until a
certain date, whichever came sooner. My job required
me to drive almost 200 miles away to a city near the
South Dakota border called Glendive. In Glendive was
a very popular paddle-fishing access site called Intake.
This location was very remote and was fundamentally a
state owned campground with the Yellowstone River running right through the outskirts of the
park. For the three days of work that I was to perform, my hours were determined by the paddle-
fishing regulations that were stated within the 2016 fishing guide and regulations book for the
state of Montana; basically for the three day period that I
worked, if anglers and fishermen were fishing from shore, I
had to be present by the river in uniform to properly and fully
carry out my responsibilities. The regulations book stated that
anglers could fish for paddlefish anywhere in the time slots of
6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on any day of the week. Therefore, the days I
worked were full 15 hour work days starting at 6 a.m. I stayed in a camper trailer provided by the
Fish, Wildlife and Parks department (FWP) on site, just fifty yards from the river.
Also, another key point to make is that three of the seven days of the week were deemed
to be “Harvest” days and the other three days were deemed “Catch and Release” days. Montana
regulates the amount of fish each person can essentially take home with them to eat; each species
has a different limit for different bodies of water being fished. In this case, for paddlefish, the
state allowed only one fish per person, per season with the proper licensing required. The reason
for only the one fish per person each season is because these fish are not as vast in population as

they used to be. By regulating the number of fish per person each year, the state helps ensure
individuals in upcoming generations the chance to catch one of these giant creatures. There were
many cases being investigated involving poaching of paddlefish during my time there. The set
limits are taken extremely seriously, especially with the paddlefish because they are so large and
difficult to catch. The paddlefish are said to be prehistoric fish that have been around for many
years; regulations are enforceable to the highest degree of the law from what I observed. Catch
and release days of the week are pretty self-explanatory in being that as long as the anglers
released the fish they could fish all day and catch as many paddlefish as they chose to while
following the regulations. Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday were always harvest days and
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday were always catch and release days.
One other regulation that is key to understanding my duties and responsibilities is the
bringing of harvested fish to check point stations. In other words, many anglers didn’t fish from
the Intake access point that I worked at. Many private land owners fished right from their
property and this regulations required them to either a.) Mail in a slip to notify the Fish, Wildlife
and Parks Department that they harvested a paddlefish or b.) Bring the actual fish to a check
point station like the one where I was stationed.
The check station that I worked at, called Intake, was very
popular for two reasons. First, a rocky dam was in place at the
location. The dam led to a great pile up of fish that would naturally
congregate just before the rocky structure. This led to many anglers
coming to this site because many fish were trying to swim upstream
to spawn; when the water levels are low, the fish couldn’t jump over
the dam. Therefore, many people walked away successful, fish in

hand. The second reason is because other than the Fish, Wildlife and Parks employee, me, being
present at this specific location, the Chamber of Commerce would hire independent contractors
who were experts at filleting paddlefish to come and fillet
harvested fish free of charge to the anglers. As paddlefish is
extremely tasty, this service was very popular. The angler would
then donate the roe to the Chamber of Commerce in exchange for
a free cleaning of the fish. Roe is essentially caviar, and caviar is
very expensive and hard to process without proper equipment;
many anglers did not have an issue donating caviar for this reason
and simply took the free cleaning. This was a big incentive for those who caught fish at a
different location on the river to bring in their fish to my check station. It could then be cleaned
and checked in, relieving the angler of his duty to mail in a slip notifying of a harvested fish.
On a harvest day, my duties required me to be stationed at the check-in site right next to
the cleaning station. On a normal day I was the only person there representing the Fish, Wildlife
and Parks Department. Many people thought I was a game
warden due to the badge and gear I wore. A fish would be
brought up to the check-in, and I would immediately grab the
fish and put it on a large scale and hoist up the fish on a pulley
to be weighed. While I waited for the fish to stop squirming
on the scale to get an accurate reading, I would take the
anglers license and fill out all of his/her information in the
Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ official paddlefish log book that

allows records to be kept of the date, time, location, angler’s name, and most importantly the
license number of the angler.
I would then spray down the fish and rid it of any dirt or debris stuck to the skin. I called
out the weight of the fish for everyone to hear since there was usually a crowd of people around
the site admiring all the fish being processed. The weight of the fish was more of a baseline for
how anglers compared their catches rather than the length. The length of a paddlefish could be
the same for fish weighing 50 lbs. all the way up to fish weighing in at 100 lbs. The biggest fish I
handled at my check station was the second biggest fish caught in the 2016 season in Montana,
weighing in at 120 pounds. I would then let the fish down
and place it on a table that had the measuring lines stamped
right on the table and line up the fish and call out the length
of the fish. Following this procedure, I would determine the
sex of the fish which took time to learn how to do.
Sometimes it was easy to determine based on the size of the
fish; females were usually way bigger because of the great
amounts of roe/caviar in their stomachs, which bulged out
their bellies. However, when they were medium sized fish, one had to look at color patterns on
the rostrum. The rostrum is the bill or paddle on the fish.
After I called out both the weight and length, I would return to my desk (a portable table),
and fill out various data sheets that would state the anglers data, the fish’s measurements, sex, as
well as the river mile where the fish was caught. After I filled out all of the paper work, I would
then check for tags previously put in the fishes jaw bone that would reflect that the fish had been
previously caught by an angler and tagged during the catch and release days in previous years.

On catch and release days, tagging fish was one of my duties. In some cases, fish had been
previously netted and tagged by the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department during research studies
performed on the Yellowstone River, a task I received firsthand experience in after the season
ended. If I found a tag in the fish, I would remove it and then fill out another slip of paper that
recorded the type and color of tag, the number on the tag, and the state on the tag. The tag with
the state and number on it was given to the angler to keep. It was generally a metal tag placed on
the jaw bone. If the fish had been previously tagged, the fisherman could request that
information be sent to them stating where the fish had been previously caught and tagged and
also revealing how many years the fish had probably been alive which was estimated by a
biologist. Many fish that I handled had North Dakota tags on them, meaning they were caught
once in North Dakota and swam hundreds of miles all the way to Montana and caught again
which is pretty remarkable.
After this step, when the fish was still on the measuring table, I would take a pair of pliers
and cut out the fish’s jaw bone and put it in a small envelope with the fish’s measurements and
sex listed on the face. The jaw bone is how the fish were aged. To understand this process, think
of a tree. When you cut a tree near the trunk, the number of rings inside the tree indicates the
number of years the tree has been alive. The same thing is true with the jaw bone on a
paddlefish. When looked at under a microscope one can see and count the number of rings
within the jaw bone of the fish. Paddle fish live for quite some time, many reaching 25 to 30
years old. This is absolutely incredible for fresh water fish.

Finally, after of the proper and necessary paperwork
had been filled out and the jaw bone removed, I would then
pull the fish up onto a conveyer belt for it to be processed.
From there the good fillets of the paddlefish would be placed
into a bag for the angler to take home and the caviar from the
females would be processed on site. The anglers could watch
the process of the fish being processed and the procedure of the
roe being extracted from the stomach of the fish if they wished.
However, the process of how the caviar is then processed for consumption is done behind closed
doors to keep the method private.
The entire process at first took me awhile to get used to. After a couple days experience, I
could have a fish picked up and put on the scale and already on its way up the conveyer belt to
be cleaned in under 5 minutes. Some days, from the time fishing started at 6 a.m., I had fifteen or
more fish lined up on the ground waiting to be processed myself. It was a rush for me to be
entirely in charge of the check station and came with a lot of responsibility. I learned to have fun
with the people who came up to my station and also learned how to answer lots of their questions
as I was carrying out my duties. I was given good hands-on training in the beginning of the
internship to fall back on when I was slammed with fish lined up down the bank of the
Yellowstone all waiting for me. The more fish I checked in the quicker and more efficient I
became. It was almost as if I had a new client every couple of minutes because each person had
different questions on what I was doing and the process of how I did my job. I really enjoyed
talking to the fisherman and answering all of their questions almost as much as I enjoyed

handling the paddlefish. I learned a lot from my own observations as well as listening intensively
to the more experienced people that worked around me in many different settings.
The other part of this job was the catch and release days. This took place at the same
fishing access point called Intake that I had mentioned before. This job was performed during the
same hours as the harvest days but was a lot more hands on working directly with the fisherman
as well as the paddlefish themselves.
My duties on the catch and release days started when an angler actually hooked a fish.
Once the fish was brought close to the bank, I would wade out just a little ways in my waders
and grab the fish pulling it into shallower water. On catch and
release days, regulations stated the paddlefish could not leave the
water to ensure that they survived. From there, I would wrestle the
fish in the water and turn it over onto its back. I would squeeze the
fish between my thighs and sit on the belly of the fish so it couldn’t
get away. From there, I would take a measuring tape and measure
the fish from the eye to the fork in the tail. I would determine the
sex of the fish next with the same techniques as I mentioned before.
After this I would do one of two things. I would either place a new
tag onto the jaw of the fish if it didn’t have one yet, or I would
remember the numbers and state that were on that tag if it had been
caught before. Placing a new tag on the jaw of the fish was not as
difficult as it may sound. I would take a knife and cut a slit just
below the jaw bone, open a new metal band and insert it into the
slit I made. From there I would take a special pair of pliers and crimp on the tag completely.

Sometimes it got a little complex when dealing with 85 pound fish that did not want to be sat on
but I got good at it really quickly. After doing one of those two things, I would release the
paddlefish or let the angler take a picture with the fish before making sure it was then released
properly.
After the fish was released, I would quickly return to my
station on the banks of the Yellowstone and record the data of the
fish such as the sex, length, and the tag number given to it or the
number of the tag that was already on it. This was my main duty
when out on the bank line with the anglers on the catch and release
days. I could have a fish landed and tag a fish and record all the
proper data in under 2 minutes for every fish. Sometimes I would
have no time to sit down for many hours straight because anglers kept catching fish over and
over again all day long. By the end of the summer, I was in really good shape from walking
back and forth on the shore and from wrestling down massive fish.
This all only lasted for a little over a month until the paddlefish season ended. For the rest
of my internship experience, I assisted in the state’s radio telemetry project and sampled ponds
and reservoirs in the southeastern region of Montana.
The radio telemetry project was basically
placing radio transmitters inside various species of
fish such as sauger, shovelnose sturgeon, pallid
sturgeon, paddlefish, and blue suckers all in the
greater area surrounding Miles City. I did this for a
shorter amount of time, but it was a great experience

being able to assist in this project and get a better understanding of what the main goal and
objectives were. In sum, the goals were to track the travel of the various species of fish in
different months of the year through season changes.
The pond and reservoir sampling was my main focus for
the second half of the internship experience. The main objective
of this assignment was to find out what different fish species
were present in various selected bodies of water. The Fish,
Wildlife and Parks Department would stock different species of
fish in private land
owners’ ponds free of charge as long as the land
owners agreed to provide public access to their
ponds. This was a great way for the Fish, Wildlife
and Parks Department to easily provide additional
locations for the public to have fishing opportunities.
My main duties revolved around setting nets and filling out paper work. To completely
sample a pond, I would have to work with another person. We would set gill nets into a body of
water and come back the next day and retrieve what we caught. When we pulled the nets onto
the boat, we would put the fish we caught into a bucket. Once in the bucket, we would take each
fish and weigh it, measure it, and define its species. I would write down each and every fish that
swam into the net on a data sheet that could be then taken back to the office and studied.
Correlation Between In-Class and Practical Experience
Many principles learned in my business classes at Concordia University were useful in
my summer internship. Among these were interpersonal communication skills with coworkers

and clients, problem solving, time management, planning, customer relations, marketing,
accountability, and the importance of training. Among the most useful were time management,
interpersonal communication, and the importance of training.
The main difference between all of these principles in the classroom compared to out in
the field was actually seeing it put into action. As I reflect back on all of my experiences this
summer, I now see that I subconsciously carried out many of these duties without even thinking
twice about it. In the classroom, one can read all about the different terms and principles of
management over and over again and not truly understand what it means. With this internship I
was able to really see how these principles came to life in various situations just naturally. I
learned a lot more from actually having real life experiences in the field rather than just reading
about it.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths:
 Visibility and accessibility of staff
 Well trained staff
 Effective communication through frequent meetings
Weaknesses:
 Lack of awareness of the public of various rules and regulations
 Department office was very far from work locations in the field
 Lots of money spent on travel to and from work locations
Opportunities:

 Educate and inform individuals of the findings from various projects
 The ability to help keep species of fish surviving year to year
 The chance to interact with the public and create opportunities for more fishing
Threats:
 Weather is a big threat to allow the FWP to do their jobs appropriately
 Lack of government funding
 Laws passed by the state and local government that hinders their ability to carry
out their daily duties, creating unfunded government demands
Evaluated SWOT Analysis
From what I observed and took with me from my internship experience, the FWP does a
great job with being constantly visible to general public. I was always in a place where people
could walk up to me and ask me about various regulations and what type of research was being
performed at any given time. This was a huge strength for the in my opinion because it allowed
for great feedback. There were no secrets or gaps between my position and the people around
me.
The biggest weakness of the company in my opinion was the weather. Numerous times
we had hail storms that wiped out towns pretty bad and the winds that came with those storms
creating a mess in the bodies of water. With tons of debris in the lakes and ponds it took a toll on
the fish living within those bodies of water.
The FWP has a great amount of opportunities to reveal the data with the public so that all
can become aware of the findings. Every day I had a chance to share with people who were
fishing about the cool things that we would find. I interacted many times with the same people

and created a relationship with them that in the end I believe gave them a better perception of the
FWP itself.
The threats presented to the company came mainly from the government. This was
directed most of the time at the funding of the department. The government would often create
new demands of the department but keep funding the same if not lower the funds entirely. This
posed huge threats on the company and their ability to do their duties.
Hard Copies of Material
I unfortunately, was not able to take home any hard copies of work that personally
performed while on the job. The reason for this is because the data that I dealt will take quite
some time to actually be published for the viewing of the public. I actually learned that some of
the material I was dealing with was classified to some extent and could not be revealed to myself
in any way. A lot of my work I performed on the computer was in excel spread sheets and could
not be revealed in “hard copy” anyways.
Internship Contract Goals
Going into this internship specifically, I really did not know what to expect. A lot of this
uncertainty was due to the fact that the internship was located in Montana and because I had
never worked in a government or state position before. In my head before I left I remember
having great expectations for myself to truly learn as much as I could and soak up all I could.
Some would question the position I took to not be related to business management but I would
disagree entirely. Going into this position my goals were to learn how to interact with anybody
that comes my way. My goal was to learn as quickly as I possibly could so that I wasn’t the
person everyone was waiting on. My goal was to observe other managers within the department
and watch their techniques to see what I thought was to be more effective than other methods.

This experience was absolutely life changing for me. I really learned so much more than I
ever would have dreamed. The things I learned were very much related to my degree as well. No
matter what you do in life or where you go in this world, effective management is a necessity in
all jobs and lines of work. Without the proper management, the overall process and general flow
of work wouldn’t be possible. The main things I took from this experience revolve around two
main things when I reflect back. Those two things are first creating relationships and secondly
applying yourself. One can do virtually anything when doing those two things. It is very
important that managers do those things. They can have a great impact on their staff if they do.
I learned that from this job that happened to deal with fishing, the management was just
as important as in any other job. It is always needed and in the proper amounts. By doing
something out of my comfort zone I learned more about management than I think I would of if I
would have interned for something revolved around management entirely. I got to interact with a
different crowd than I am used to and it showed me a new perspective than I have ever
experienced before. I dealt with different people every single day and had different interactions
with co-workers and upper level management all the time; I truly received a positive well
rounded view of the entire spectrum of management. I could do this internship one hundred
times again and learn something new every time that would help me become a better manager in
virtually any line of work today.

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