New wildlife trooper happy for return to small-town living

Alisha Seward is Wrangell's new state wildlife trooper - her fifth move in nine years.

Wrangell is one of the smaller posts among the 37 locations staffed by the Alaska wildlife troopers division and she is the only officer in town, with no corresponding state trooper.

"Right now, my goal is just to learn my patrol area, which is big and vast," she said. "I just spent the last couple days out on a boat patrol with Chadd (Yoder), who was just here, learning my area and all that encompasses it."

Coming from a brief posting in Juneau, she took over from Wildlife Trooper Chadd Yoder, who transferred to Ketchikan several months ago.

Seward began her career in Soldotna, then moved to Homer and Kodiak, where she met and married her husband, Wesley, and had her two young sons, Kaden and Ryder, ages 3 and 2, respectively, as well as gaining another family member, their 4-year-old German shepherd Kimber.

Because Seward felt that her duties in Kodiak kept her away too much from her family, they tried a short stint in Juneau. "Did not like it," she said, adding that they decided to return to a smaller community. "Wrangell opened up, we jumped on it, and we have just been in love with it since we've been here." They arrived in late March.

Her husband especially enjoys returning to a small town. "He's from Kodiak, so him getting back to a small community was very big for him, so he has just been enjoying it and thriving here."

A former fishing guide, Seward's husband now devotes his time taking care of the kids and starting a new business that focuses on one of his passions: role-playing and trading card games like Dungeons and Dragons, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh and Magic: The Gathering. "Right now, we're doing it at the bottom of our house," she said. "It's been doing well. It's called AK Hobby R.A.W.K.S."

Kaden and Ryder share their parents' love of the outdoors and have been adaptable to the various changes. "Since they've been born, this is their third move," mom said. "Anywhere we go, for them it's a new adventure."

Born and raised in Washington state, Seward had wanted to go into law enforcement since she was in high school. She expressed her interest with the school resource officer, who encouraged her to take part in a ride-along, an arrangement for a civilian to spend a shift in the passenger seat with a local police officer on patrol. "It was the best," she said. "Every day was different. Every call was different."

However, when she prepared for college, her mother urged her to focus her studies on something outside police work, so she chose something completely different. "I studied exercise physiology and I got a minor in culinary arts," she said.

Before she graduated though, she kept recalling her ride-along experience and finally decided that a career in law enforcement was what she needed to pursue. "Not only do I want to help people and be there for them, but sitting behind a desk for me, it's not something I could do on a daily basis. It would probably drive me up a wall, doing the same thing, day in and day out."

Upon choosing her career path, Seward discovered that her college roommate had a great-aunt who worked in the Alaska State Troopers' recruiting department. "I was like, 'Well, I'm not tied anywhere, let's go on an adventure and have some fun,'" she said.

She was drawn to work as a wildlife trooper by her love of the outdoors. "Outside is where all the beauty's at," she said. "I get to contact good people just out there having some fun and see what they're catching."

Seward said one of the challenges is that while criminal laws and statutes are evenly applied throughout the state regardless of location, hunting and fishing laws vary from region to region. It can be difficult to keep track of all the regional boundaries and what laws and regulations apply to those specific areas. "Hunting, fishing, sport fishing, personal use, subsistence, it all is a little bit different in the certain places that you go."

"When I was in Kodiak, for example," she said. "There, with big game hunting, you can shoot from your boat. It just can't be obviously moving ... Here in Southeast? Oh, that's like a big no-no. ... So, just small little nuances like that makes it tricky."

Now settled into her new post, Seward wants the residents to feel free to approach her, regardless of her uniform. "My thing is, first and foremost, I'm a mom and a wife ... and I'm a trooper second."