Angelina County game warden Timothy Walker proudly holds a life-saving citation presented to him by the director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife. He received it last Friday in Austin. Following spring rains Walker and Polk County game warden David Jones rescued a stranded kayaker who wasn’t wearing a life jacket. The cold and shivering boater was stranded on a log in the middle of a swollen Trinity River.

“It was rolling and we felt like if he had decided to try to swim for it he probably wouldn’t have made it just because the water temperature was so cold and he was already cold,” recalled Walker.

Cherokee County Game Warden Brian Bearden was presented the same award for saving stranded tornado victims. The rescue was April 13 at the Caddo Mounds State Historic Site near Alto. Roadways were blocked in all directions by fallen trees.

“I was able to loop thru the back roads, you know, from my familiarity with hunting camps. We spend a lot of time on the back roads of this county,” said Bearden.

The knowledge gave him the ins and outs of secluded areas. Bearden navigated thru downed trees and fence lines to reach a group of scared and injured festival-goers.

“It was like a bomb had went off. A lot of shock. The injuries, the shock on people’s faces. You could see that they had just went thru something very severe and traumatic,” Bearden vividly recalled. The wardens love the outdoors, but they remind Texans nature can present life-threatening dangers.

“A lot of times we say we’re law enforcement off the pavement. And so, in many cases we respond to emergencies out in the rural part of the county,” said Walker.