Iowa conservation officer wrote the book on her job

With more than 20 years of being a conservation law enforcement officer, Erika Billerbeck has worked on her fair share of “mentally taxing” investigations.

“There’s always cases you’ll never forget,” Billerbeck said, referencing cases she worked on ranging from dealing with sex offenders to investigating gruesome deaths.

But Billerbeck has found a way to cope with some of the cases she’s seen while also diving into her deep love for nature: writing about her experiences as an officer.

She had been writing for Iowa’s Outdoor Magazine, publishing the “Warden’s Diary” column for about 10 years. But with word count limitations and the fact that some of her stories were not “family-friendly,” Billerbeck decided to expand her work.

Billerbeck published “Wildland Sentinel” in fall 2020, a book chronicling her experiences as a conservation officer and inviting readers to learn more about the work.

“Writing a book had always been a lifelong goal of mine, so that’s what I ended up doing,” Billerbeck said, adding that she also created the illustrations for the book. “One of the goals of the book was to enlighten people about what conservation officers do, because often people have absolutely no clue what we do.”

  Buy Photo

Billerbeck, who lives in Solon and is an alum of Luther College in Decorah, said contrary to what is often thought, conservation officers deal with people more than animals. She said cases involving people have included sex offender-type crimes in state parks, illicit drug use and domestic assaults.

“Some of that stuff is just surprising when people read about it, they don't know that we are dealing with those kind of investigations or dealing with those kind of people,” Billerbeck said. “Any crimes that are happening in the city, they're also happening out in these state areas.”

Billerbeck, who said she has always loved the outdoors, originally went through police training in Wisconsin and was hired in Iowa as a Department of Natural Resources conservation officer in 2000. She was initially assigned to Webster and Calhoun counties for five years before transferring to Johnson County, where she still works.

Brian Button, editor of the Iowa Outdoors Magazine who worked with Billerbeck for years, said her writing is inspiring to him.

“No matter how challenging the situation or how miserable the behavior of people Erika faces, her writing seemed to give readers an eventual sense of calm in knowing that she is not only out there working and doing her job well, but that she is so levelheaded, decent and good,” Button said.

Button said her writing has helped show Iowans the dedication that conservation officers bring to the job as they work to “protect nature from people, people from nature” and themselves from the outdoors.

  Buy Photo

Now, just over four years since “Wildland Sentinel” was released, Billerbeck said she is working on a second book.

Between having a full-time job and being a mom, Billerbeck isn’t sure what the future holds for the second book but said it might have a different setup than the first book, while still diving into real cases she’s worked. She also said she’s hoping to continue writing magazine articles as well.

Conservation Officer Travis Graves said he worked as a seasonal water patrol officer with the Iowa DNR, where Billerbeck oversaw his work. Graves, who worked with Billerbeck since 2010, said he has learned a lot from her, noting her dedication to making Coralville Lake a safe place for families to enjoy.

“Sgt. Billerbeck strived to ensure dangerous and drunk boaters were apprehended and deterred from boating while intoxicated,” Graves said. “Enforcing BWI's are challenging and require a lot of time and work, however Sgt. Billerbeck never shied away from this task to ensure that all boaters remained safe on the Coralville Reservoir.”

Graves said her writing’s impact has been “enormous.”

“I can remember being in high school waiting for the Iowa Outdoor Magazine to show up so I could flip to the back of the magazine and read her Warden Diary stories,” Graves said. “These stories made me want to pursue a career as a conservation officer.”

Graves said he has seen Iowans approach Billerbeck in restaurants, stores and while on patrol to share their gratitude for her stories.

“This allowed many Iowans to see things from the perspective of a conservation officer and how challenging our job can be,” Graves said. “The public is often unaware of the many challenges conservation officers face. Many people think we just check hunting and fishing licenses, but through her writing she gives people an inside perspective of the everyday challenges.”

Olivia Cohen covers energy and environment for The Gazette and is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.

Comments: (319) 398-8370; olivia.cohen@thegazette.com