Cruising down Maligne Lake, every boat on the water gives a friendly wave and every fishing boat is more than willing to listen to the Parks Canada boat as it does a regular fishing inspection. Many even seem pleased to get the chance to ask the men in uniform about the best fishing spot on the lake.

It’s Sunday morning and Jasper National Park warden Jim Mamalis and Resource Management and Public Safety Specialist, also known as conservation staff, James McCormick are out on the lake doing routine fishing checks.

The two are part of a working conjunction that Parks Canada has introduced. Both used to be park wardens, and while Mamalis still is, with the recent change in staff titles and duties that went fully into effect earlier this year, McCormick has a slightly different title.

On this day, there is not much difference to the public as they set out on the water.

McCormick lives at the park station on the lake and has different duties than Mamalis, although some still overlap, and often compliment each other, like today.

“But James will help out people in an overturned canoe, or someone in distress down the lake, do some trail work, some trail clearing,” says Mamalis.

Among much more, an important role for both of them is public interaction.

McCormick is out on the water most days, talking to boaters, campers and fishermen and hikers. Talking to people is the best way to find out about things that need to be done or people who need a hand.

He also does public safety work, helping to ensure the visitors in the park aren’t getting too close to the wild animals, performing rescues and whatever else needs to be done in the area.

It’s a slow Sunday, and the two only check about five boats – fifteen or so people – and surprisingly no violations.

“If we checked 20 or 30 people fishing, you’d get two or three violations at least. Mostly it’s for possession of lead, or forgetting to get a license – having an Alberta license but not a National Parks license,” Mamalis says.

Most people fishing on the lake know the regulations, and what the warden looks for the most are lead weights that come off the line and sink to the bottom, only to be swallowed by a waterfowl and cause a slow death that could last over two to three months. Other violations include a lure with too many hooks, or keeping too many fish.

Mamalis says quite often people have an Alberta licence and don’t realize the number of trout you can keep in Alberta is three per person, whereas in JNP it’s two. Getting the licence, he says, also is just as important for the reason of receiving the fishing pamphlet full of the regulations.

By the time we’ve come back to shore, only a handful of boats that went out on the cool morning have been checked, and none of them had violations.

As we say goodbye to McCormick, he asks Mamalis to let him know if there are any major bear or elk jams on the road back to town that he should come out to break up.

And of course, there are.

Two spots along Maligne Rd. where large bull elk are laying in the grass have caused a bit of a traffic jam – the second one causing the road to narrow to a single lane, one-way traffic system.

Mamalis gets out to talk to the tourists – many of them are too close to the large antlered animal. He explains that they should not be closer than the other side of the road, and makes the camper van the size of a bus move.

I ask his if he thinks people treat him like a police officer, of which he has very similar authority and powers of arrest. Some do, he says, most notably the ones who know that he is now armed with a gun.

“A little less lip from some of the young guys. There are some people out there who will give you a hard time no matter who you are, that’s just the way they are,” he says.

The park wardens, 100 in total across the country, have the same authority as RCMP officers, but only in the National Parks, Jasper, the biggest national park in the mountains, only has six.

“A park this size it’s pretty difficult to do, but so far it’s been ok with no major problems,” Mamalis says of covering the large area.

The difference between the RCMP and park wardens is their mandate. The wardens have almost an identical authority and powers of arrest as the RCMP, but their mandate is natural resource enforcement and visitor enjoyment.

“Our stuff is mostly about natural resource offences in the park and noise and disturbance and stuff like that, violations at the campgrounds. And we can deal with criminal code matters if we need to,” he says, but, “the reality is that probably 90 per cent of our time is spent talking to people, and the other 10 per cent is charging them and arresting them, whatever the case may be.”