BEND Oregon State Police Senior Trooper Marv Ritter, of the John Day Outpost, has received the agencys Fish and Wildlife Division Trooper of the Year award.

Capt. Jeff Samuels, OSP Fish and Wildlife Division director, and supervisors Sgt. Tim Brown and Lt. Don Wagner made the presentation to Ritter on May 31, before a group of peers at the OSP Bend area command office.

Samuels commended Ritter for his continued excellence in efforts toward the protection of Oregons citizens and natural resources.

Marv has consistently risen to the top, and is a very skilled and accomplished investigator, generally working by himself in a remote work site, said Samuels.

Highlights in Ritters logbook include a 2012 investigation of a large elk hunting party in the Desolation Unit, which resulted in citations to six people for borrowing and loaning elk tags and taking bull elk without tags.

In May 2010, Ritter saved the life of a 90-year-old Portland man who drove his car into the John Day River and was stranded in the raging, cold water. As a result of his actions, Ritter received the OSP Harold R. Berg Lifesaving Award and an honorable mention Top Cops award from the National Association of Police Organizations.

Ritter, a member of the Columbia Basin Team, has been with OSP for nine years. During the last seven, he has been assigned in the Fish and Wildlife Division, and is currently the only Fish and Wildlife trooper in the John Day area, patrolling nearly 5,000 square miles.