Wayne Saunders is a retired Lieutenant Conservation Officer from the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. An honored and celebrated wildlife Law Enforcement Officer overseeing patrols in the northern reaches of New Hampshire from Mount Washington to the Canadian border, he still considers natural resource protection a passion and calling.
“At the age of six, I was hunting with my father near our home in Belmont, New Hampshire. We had just flushed a ruffed grouse and my dad had told me to stay where I was with my unloaded BB gun as he stalked the grouse. I looked behind me and standing not too far away on the old logging road was a game warden watching me and my father as he stalked the grouse. He had seemed to materialize out of nowhere. He was wearing a green uniform with a cowboy hat and was watching us as we hunted. He checked my father’s hunting license, spoke with him a short time and moved silently back down the old logging road.
As the game warden left, I asked my father ‘who was the cowboy in the woods?’
In 1995 I became a cowboy in the woods and started my dream job as a game warden that I had wanted since that encounter at six years old. I began working in the Great North Woods of New Hampshire and have never left. I worked as a Conservation Officer for 23 years, catching poachers, doing search and rescue missions, responding to wild animal complaints, backing up local and state police, and many other things in the course of my duty. In 1997 I was shot in the line of duty trying to apprehend a murderer; at the time I wasn’t aware of his heinous crimes of murdering two New Hampshire State Troopers who were friends of mine, a local judge, and a newspaper editor who tried to stop his rampage. I worked as sergeant for five years in District One and finished as District One Lieutenant, the supervisor for the most northern part of New Hampshire, before I retired in May of 2018. As a lieutenant, some of my many responsibilities included being in charge of the state’s Air Boat Team, managing search and rescue, and the Operation Game Thief program. Through that program, I worked with International Wildlife Crime Stoppers and was part of their board until July of 2018. Such an awesome, exciting vocation I hope to share with my listeners.”
In 2021, Wayne and wildlife biologist Lindsay Webb co-wrote the children’s book A Cowboy in the Woods, the first release in the Junior Game Warden series.
Lt. John Nores Jr (ret.) 
With a love for wildlife and our nation’s wildlands, John became a game warden for the California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife in 1992 after earning BS and MS degrees at San Jose State University. He was inducted into SJSU’s Justice Studies Hall of Fame in 2018.
In 2005 John promoted to Lieutenant, continuing his mission to protect and defend our nation’s wildlife resources. Nores has investigated environmental crime and wildlife resource destruction for the last 28 years and was awarded the Governor’s Medal of Valor for lifesaving and leadership efforts in 2008. He’s received several other awards for valor, life-saving, and distinguished service throughout his career, and along with his teammates has survived four officer involved shooting incidents during DTO trespass grow operations.
John’s first book, War in the Woods: Combating the Marijuana Cartels on America’s Public Lands was published in 2010 with his second book, Hidden War: How special operations game wardens are reclaiming America’s wildlands from the drug cartels dropping in early 2019. Nores also recently co-authored a national cannabis environmental issue book, Where There’s Smoke released in 2018.
In 2013 John co-developed the Marijuana Enforcement Team (MET) and Delta Team, the CDFW’s first comprehensive wilderness spec ops tactical unit and sniper element, aimed at combatting the drug cartel’s decimation of our nation’s wildlife resources.
Nores and the MET have been featured on the Joe Rogan Experience, Meat Eater, Mike Drop and Cleared Hot podcasts and highlighted on Fox News, NBC Investigative Reports, CNN, and Dan Rather Reports. Lt. Nores and his team are featured in three seasons of National Geographic channel’s award-winning game warden reality TV series, “Wild Justice,” highlighted in the Sportsman Channel’s Patriot Profiles: Life of Duty documentary TV series and featured in and co-hosts Pursuit Channel’s Modern Shooter and Frontier Unlimited television programs.
The MET and their lead apprehension K9 Phebe were recognized for their environmental crime fighting and public safety protection efforts in California’s capitol through Resolution ceremonies in the Assembly and Senate in 2017.
Specializing in public and private land Drug Trafficking Organization (DTO) environmental crime enforcement tactics and training for the last 15 years, Nores has presented to groups like the California Narcotics Officers Association (CNOA), the Nevada Narcotics Officers Association (NNOA), and numerous other conventions and conferences throughout the US. Endorsed by the legitimate cannabis industry, Nores has presented to the California Growers Association (CGA) and other cannabis conventions.
John is an annual Safari Club International (SCI) convention seminar speaker, a national and international conservation tactics instructor and has taught rifle, handgun, shotgun and basic and advanced sniper craft for the last 25 years. John has allied with the U.S. Secret Service in rural and urban protection details for former U.S. President Barack Obama and former Israeli President Shimon Peres. In 2007, John co-developed and instructed at an overt and covert wildlife investigators school in southeast Asia.
Nores has written articles for Recoil, KUIU Ultralight Hunting, Sure Fire’s Combat Tactics, Gun Digest and American Patriots: Unsung Heroes and Nosler. John is a worldwide conservationist, back packer, bass player and singer, two-time Ironman triathlete finisher and was the first to successfully solo the Baja 500 race on an ATV in 2013. John’s Baja team (J&J Ironman Racing) has raced to support and fundraise for El Oasis children’s orphanage since their first race event in 2006.
John Nores’ website: www.johnnores.com/
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