Todd Houf went to Fulton schools as a child - and he said Wednesday he loves to come back as an adult every chance he gets.
On Wednesday, he got to explain his job as Missouri Department of Conservation agent, a position he's had for 17 years.
"This is where I grew up," Houf told a classroom full of students at Fulton High School's second annual Student Professional Development Day. "I come here any time I get a chance."
Houf probably gets a lot of chances to visit the district. He's married to Beth Houf, Fulton Middle School principal.
Lots of students told him they had no idea what his job entails.
"The best one I've heard today is we wrestle racoons aound," Houf said, laughing.
He admits he's never wrestled a racoon, but one never knows. He actually makes sure anglers and hunters have the proper permits and people are in compliance with the state's natural resources laws.
"In my field of law enforcement, I get to talk to the ones doing the right thing, as well as some doing the wrong thing," Houf said.
Another part of his job, he said, is to perform public relations duties such as working with local media and conducting educational school programs.
Each one of Missouri's 114 counties have one or two MDC agents, and they don't all work in the woods.
"We also have urban agents," Houf said, adding bigger cities might have two conservation agents.
Houf also works closely with people who have confined deer herds and sometimes offer hunting on private land. He recounted a discovery of a pile of dead deer dumped in a creek. With information gleaned from the ear tags worn by the dead animals, he tracked down the owner of a hunting business who denied dumping the dead deer. A month or so later, the man was arrested for something else and Houf reinterviewed him. Again, the suspect denied the illegal dumping, but then finally recanted and admitted to the deed.
"Honesty goes a lot further than lying," Houf said. "People lie to us all the time. Honesty's a great thing, and if you do something wrong, you should fess up."
About 50 different presentations happened during Wednesday's event, which lasted most of the day.