For One Local Game Warden – It’s A Family Tradition

Above photo: 20-year veteran Texas Game Warden Eddie Lehr (right) and Tom Browning, Lehr’s grandfather (left).

By Greg Ritchie

Messenger Reporter

HOUSTON COUNTY – As any hunter or fisher knows, game wardens have that uncanny ability to show up just about anywhere and anytime. With power to search about anything, game wardens are tasked with enforcing hunting and fishing laws, as well as protecting natural resources through enforcement, education and conservation. 

For over 20 years, local Game Warden Eddie Lehr has been patrolling those piney woods, following trails and going where the trails don’t. He checks in to make sure people are following the rules and not over-hunting or fishing, so there will be plenty of game for our kids and grandkids. 

This conservation has paid off over time, even long before Lehr got in the game. His grandfather, Tom Browning was doing the same job from 1947-1977 and taught Lehr some of the lessons he still uses today. 

Browning used to take young Lehr with him sometimes on those patrols – a practice you couldn’t get away with these days. While Lehr acknowledged the job is essentially the same, he laughed about how the tools have changed over the years.

“If he would have had the equipment we have now, he would have caught a whole lot more people than he did, way back then,” Lehr laughed. “We have trucks that are four wheel drive –  back then, they had cars. We’ve got better communications and cell phones. He went to the second game warden academy they ever had and when he graduated, all they gave him was a law book and a badge. He had to provide his own vehicle, his own gun and his own ammo.”

In fact during Browning’s first year on the job, he patrolled on horseback until he could save enough money to buy a Jeep. In spite of this, Browning not only became well known for the number of cases he brought, he taught his young grandson the tricks of the trade. 

“‘Be observant,’ was one thing he taught me. He said, ‘You’ll make a lot more cases being observant than just driving down the road looking straight ahead,” Lehr remembered. “He also warned me to not write no ‘feather-legged cases.’”

That was how grandpas back in the day cleaned up a common phrase referring to small, insignificant matter. 

Lehr enjoys his work, even after all these years, and the fact that what he does matters for the present and for the future. When a traditional law enforcement officer interacts with the public, the person may or not be armed. But every hunter Lehr comes across is armed, some to their very teeth. This doesn’t bother Lehr, who before becoming a game warden worked in the prison system. Most people, he said, are good people and own up to any mistakes they have made on the hunt. 

“I’d say three-fourths of the people we deal with are good, law-abiding citizens. When you go into camps, you do have to keep your head on a swivel and watch everybody at all times, because you never know what what might happen. After a while, you just get used to it and keep your eyeballs peeled,” Lehr explained. 

After so many years, Lehr has “seen it all,” as the saying goes, finding deer hidden anywhere people thought one would fit, and somewhere they hope Lehr wouldn’t look. 

“Underneath houses, in deer stands, under toolboxes, in the back of trucks with stuff piled on top of them,” Lehr said. “I’ve had them dig holes and bury the deer and then put ice in there with it and a tarp so it wouldn’t get dirt all over it. Any way you can think of a way to hide it, they will.”

Lehr hasn’t forgotten his grandfather’s advice about being observant. He uses his long-honed instinct to sniff out when something’s not right, in spite of the tall tales Lehr sometimes hears from those who are trying to hide something. 

“It’s like a sixth sense about a situation – there’s that little voice in your head telling you something is not right,” Lehr said. “I’m always looking for evidence during hunting season. Maybe a spot of blood on their fingernail or on their boots. They’re telling me they haven’t killed anything and you find that little bitty spot of blood. Nine times out of 10, they confess to you they killed one and where they are hiding it. There’s so many things people do to try to get out of tagging the deer.”

Lehr has thought about retirement – he has enough hours logged in his career to retire anytime – but still enjoys being out and about. He said as long as he enjoys it and is able to do it, he would like to continue. 

“I like helping the public. I like helping the landowners. Landowners call me when they’re having trouble, if someone is trespassing or shining lights and night and shooting deer. I like to have cases where I go out there and actually catch the person in the act and help that landowner out,” Lehr said. “I like helping kids try to get them on the right track to live their life the right way. I see so many kids nowadays that make that one little mistake, and it ruins their whole life. When I catch them doing something wrong, I just try to explain to them how to do it the right way.”

Lehr is proud to be a Texan and proud of his country, while saying he understands it is currently in a bad situation. Lehr respects those who did the job before him, like his own grandfather, and he may someday train his replacement – another link in a long chain of game wardens holding the line in the fields and forests of Texas. 

Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]