Today Guse is doing exactly that, serving as game warden captain for Region Five of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks headquartered in Billings.
It was less than a month ago that Guse made the news when he shot and killed a mountain lion in the Lockwood area near Billings. It wasn’t what he considers the fun part of his job.
In the case of a large predator like a mountain lion in an urban area, Guse explained, game wardens have to make decisions often in short order and always with public safety as the top priority.
“I’ve devoted my whole professional career to protecting … resources,” Guse said, “so to have to put down an animal like that … (is) a really tough part of the job. But we try to step back and look objectively at it and decide what’s the best way to handle it.”
He explained further than tranquilizing and relocating mountain lions has not proven to be effective like it has with animals like black bears.
Guse, who played his high school football in Janesville, Minn., transferred to UM from Golden Valley Junior College in Minneapolis, a school that has since closed down. He had never been to Missoula but research had shown that UM had a good wildlife biology program, so he made the choice over other options available to him at the time.
Guse was recruited by none other than Mike Van Diest, at that time an assistant to Larry Donovan at UM. Van Diest now is the head coach at Carroll College and a finalist for the head coaching job at Montana State.
Guse’s file folder in the Grizzly Athletics archives lists him as a fullback. While he played some tight end in junior college Guse said he never was a fullback, but rather came to UM as a defensive lineman.
“It was a fun time,” Guse said of his two football years at Montana. “The first game we played over in Hawaii. The score was disappointing but it was a fun experience to play over there.”
A rash of injuries led to Guse playing offensive line much of his junior season when UM won the Big Sky Conference championship, but he was able to concentrate on defense as a senior.
“After that (championship) season that’s when … a new stadium became a fairly talked-about issue,” Guse recalled. “As I look back some of that success and support that we garnered - that was the first time we had gone to the playoffs - I would hope helped promote that stadium.”
Because junior- and senior-level wildlife biology courses included a lot of field and lab work that conflicted with football practice and games Guse said it was a challenge to get the classwork done.
While his professors helped all they could Guse said it was impossible to finish his degree the same year he used up his football eligibility.
“Realistically I knew I couldn’t skip practice three days a week and expect to be successful in football any more than I could skip classes three days a week and be successful in my classes,” Guse recalled.
So Guse had to complete his studies- on his own dollar - after his football career was over. But not until he took more than a year off to work in Alaska to make enough money to finish school.
He ended up managing a ranch in central Alaska for a year and a half. While he said it was fun and rewarding, Guse was glad that he resisted the temptation to stay in Alaska rather than come back to UM to finish up his eight remaining wildlife biology credits.
After getting his degree in the fall of 1987 Guse did some temp wildlife jobs for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before catching on with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks - first in the Wildlife Division, then as a game warden starting in July 1990.
Guse served first as a field warden at Ft. Peck Reservoir, then as a warden sergeant in Glasgow - where he met his wife of 11 years, Shannon. From Glasgow he went to Helena to serve for five years as an investigator, and in 2003 made warden captain stationed in Billings.
While he was most interested in being a game warden in Montana, Guse said he was prepared to look elsewhere if necessary. Turns out he didn’t have to.
“Great place to live, great place to raise a family, so things really worked out for the best,” Guse said.
The most exciting thing about his job, Guse said, is dealing with different things every day, especially out in the field. While he spends more time in the office now, Guse still gets called out to work in the field occasionally.
Working in the office has its rewards as well. The Region Five office sits right next to Lake Elmo.
“As we’re visiting right now I can look out my window and see osprey fishing in the lake,” Guse said. “We’ve got a pier going out and on any given day there’ll be people out there fishing.
“It’s a great place to see people at their best and sometimes not quite their best,” Guse added.
Occasionally an angler might get caught up in the action and forget where he or she is. Guse recalled one such incident that happened during the summer of 2005.
“They were having tremendous success fishing … and saving their fish and putting them in a box,” Guse said, noting that the anglers were in plain sight of his office.
When Guse asked one of the men how he was doing, the man said, “Really good. I’ve caught over my limit.”
“Sure enough,” Guse laughed, “he had over the limit of trout, but felt comfortable fishing 50 yards away from the (FWP) office and doing that.”
Guse ended up giving the fisherman a citation, took the over-the-limit catch and sent the man home with his limit of trout.
“Hopefully he learned his lesson,” Guse said.
Guse and his wife have a son, Zane, who is 10, and a daughter, Briana, who is 9. Both are involved in sports, and both currently are preparing to take their black-belt tests in tae kwon do.
Briana’s also involved in judo, soccer and softball while Zane also does judo, baseball, basketball and yes, football.
“Last year Zane got to play his first season of - over here they call it Little Guy Football - but for the life of me every time that I refer to it … I call it Little Griz Football,” Guse said, noting that one of his fondest memories from his days at UM was doing a clinic for Little Grizzly participants with his Grizzly teammates.
“I met some really good friends,” Guse recalled about that evening, “people that I’m still friends with … through those first contacts with Little Griz football.”
Guse has no regrets whatsoever about his decision to attend the University of Montana. But being a game warden doesn’t give him the opportunity to attend Grizzly football games in Missoula, especially since fall is one of his busiest times of the year.
He made it to the spring game in Billings last month but was only able to make it through one quarter before he was called to duty.
“Come Saturdays, if I’m out working in the field, I always try and head to high ground at some point so I can listen to some of the game or find out what the score is,” Guse said. “I keep track of it and watch whatever games I can (on television).
“I’m an avid Grizzly fan and I picture that I always will be,” Guse concluded.
Click here to listen to the entire interview with Harold Guse.
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