Texas Game Warden Not Just a Job, It’s a Way of Life

By Nate Skinner

achel Kellner is serving her 20th year as a Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) State Game Warden. Throughout her career and service, she has displayed an unwavering passion for her job, going above and beyond the call of duty to serve the community and its members, as well as the wildlife and natural resources of the Lone Star State.

Kellner grew up as an only child on what used to be known as the Katy prairie. The area has since succumbed to urbanization and become a part of the greater Houston area. She said that her dad treated her like both a son and a daughter, and introduced her to hunting and fishing early on in her childhood. Kellner’s family has a farm along the Brazos River in Waller County, where she was raised hunting, fishing, and recreating along the river as much as she possibly could.

“The outdoors became a huge part of my life at a very young age,” Kellner said. “I remember being about 12 years old on a goose hunt with my dad when a game warden crossed over the rice fields on a fourwheeler to check us. Immediately, I asked my dad who was approaching us, as this was my very first encounter with a game warden.”

Kellner attended college at Texas A&M University and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Recreation and Parks Tourism Science and an Associate’s Degree in Criminal Justice. During her senior year of college, she became an intern with TPWD, where she had the opportunity to shadow game wardens in and around College Station. Shortly after graduating from Texas A&M, Kellner was accepted into the Game Warden Academy and became a Texas Game Warden.

Until 2020, Kellner spent the majority of her career in Uvalde. It was here where she began her service after graduating from the Game Warden Academy, and the area has and will forever hold a special place in her heart.

“When I was 14 years old, my dad and I started hunting in south Texas,” Kellner said. “Instead of just hunting around our family farm for a few hours on any given day, I went with dad on trips that would last several days.

Kellner said tells how the warden checked their hunting licenses and visited with them for a few minutes.

“I was absolutely enamored by the fact that that’s what he got to do all day long for his job,” she said. “At 12 years old, it looked like he was just prowling around the outdoors, visiting with hunters and different folks. From that moment on, I told my dad that I wanted to become a game warden, and my affinity for the job has not wavered since.”

The memories I made on those hunting trips with my Dad are extremely special to me, and they all took place in and around the Uvalde area and south Texas.”

Because of all of the great memories that she made with her dad in south Texas, Kellner put Uvalde at the top of her wish list for her preferred duty station upon graduating from the Game Warden Academy, and low and behold, she got stationed there.

“At the time, there had never been a female game warden in south Texas, and I stayed in Uvalde for 17 years,” she said.

While working in Uvalde, Kellner and her husband, Charlie, settled on their very own piece of south Texas property, where they could walk out and go hunting in their backyard. The property had a creek and tank, and her oldest son harvested his first deer there.

“I was seemingly working in the deer and dove hunting capital of Texas,” Kellner said. “Dove hunting was something that I always loved to do, and it was incredible to just be able to step outside of our home and go dove hunting whenever we wanted to during dove season.”

During the 17 years she served in Uvalde, Kellner felt it was important to commit to living there and being a part of the community.

“The Uvalde area was where I wanted to raise my kids,” she said. “It’s where we went to church as a family. I really made an effort to become an integral part of the community and its school system.”

Kellner described working in Uvalde as her dream job. She was happy to go to work every day because she was outdoors doing the things that she loved.

“There were times that I got to take pictures with kids who had just harvested their first deer or caught their first fish,” Kellner said. “I also caught road hunters and other poachers. I was living the stories that game wardens before me had told, and it was just a very special time. I loved every minute of it.”

In Kellner’s opinion, the Uvalde area was a great place to raise her kids because they were exposed to hunting, fishing, and the outdoors, every day. She and her husband have three children; two sons, Dixon, 15 and Kasen, 12 and a daughter, Callie who is 9.

“My kids were blessed to grow up with plentiful opportunities to spend time fishing and hunting on our own property where we lived, as well as on surrounding ranches and properties owned by other community members,” Kellner said. “Our house and property were in the south zone for dove season, but we always knew folks that had property just north of us, in the central zone, who would invite us out so that we could go hunting with our kids on September 1st for opening day.”

In November of 2020, Kellner was promoted from a field game warden to Lieutenant and became a program coordinator, which prompted her and her family to move to the small town of Aleman, right outside of Hamilton. She now oversees the TPWD Game Warden Internship Program and the career development program, which consists of ride-alongs. Kellner is also in charge of game warden recruitment for the state, as well as diversity and inclusion.

Social media has become an important part of Kellner’s game warden recruitment efforts. She manages an Instagram page called Texas Game Warden Recruiting which showcases what cadet life looks like, what an internship entails, and what it takes to become a Texas Game Warden.

Kellner has always been passionate about community outreach, and getting women involved in the outdoors and nature. Before the pandemic in 2020, she along with four other women, started an organization called Women Who Wander. The organization held events that included kayaking, skeet shooting, fly fishing, and numerous other outdoor activities involving about 800 women participants.

Recently, Kellner helped organize the first Texas Game Warden Women’s conference with TPWD Game Warden and statewide recruiter Chelsea Bailey. This event included female game wardens and other female law enforcement members and leaders.

Kellner is also involved with the TPWD game warden Critical Incident Team (CIT). Prior to her promotion to Lieutenant, she was the leader of this team and in charge of West Texas for many years. The Critical Incident Team provides peer support to other game wardens who are involved in life-changing incidents.

Her career as a game warden has been a huge part of Kellner’s life. She has been able to have a full circle experience, from being an intern to becoming a field game warden to now having a more administrative role where she can have a positive influence on policy and the future of Texas Game Wardens. She hopes to create positive changes within the program, that will better serve all future Texas Game Wardens.

It’s safe to say that the title of Texas Game Warden has not simply been an occupation or career for Kellner, but rather, it is who she is. And if you ask her, she’ll tell you that she’s dang sure proud of it.