Elk Poachers Hit With Jail, $3,200 Fines

Two Jordan Valley, Ore.-area residents will spend 60 days in the Owyhee County Jail and pay $3,200 each for killing four huge bull elk.

The Idaho Wildlife Federation says the sentence brings home the point that big game is a valuable commodity; the group is pushing a bill in the Idaho Legislature that would raise the stakes for poaching.

Jim Kershner and Pat Stanford pleaded guilty Monday before Magistrate Thomas Ryan. The elk were killed Nov. 6 on the Idaho side of the state line.

One bull would have gone in the record books as the third largest ever taken in Idaho, had it been killed legally.

The men will lose their hunting and fishing licenses for three years. They must write letters of apology to Idaho citizens to be published in local newspapers.

Under a compact Idaho has with other states, the duo also cannot hunt or fish throughout the West.

The two were accused of using lights to shoot the elk at night on Juniper Mountain in Owyhee County, then moving them into Oregon to attach game tags from that state. Idaho Fish and Game officers learned of the incident through an informant.

Under legislation the federation proposes, the two could have lost their licenses for life and forfeited their vehicles, weapons or other possessions used in stealing the animals, Goodnight said.

Both minimum fines and civil penalties would be increased to compensate the state for the lost animals.

Gift for trout hatchery

The Vancouver (Wash.) Trout Hatchery received a $235,000 gift from Clark County Public Utilities to help keep the 58-year-old hatchery swimming in fish.

Limited state funding had, in recent years, forced a reduction in fish production. Before the announcement of the gift on Dec. 31, the hatchery was threatened with closure.

In an effort to fulfill its own requirements to promote fish and wildlife resources in the area, the publicly-owned utility’s gift will allow the hatchery to continue producing 50,000 catchable trout, 110,000 steelhead, and 10,000 searun cutthroat annually in Clark County.

Wild steelhead closures

The Humptulips River will be closed for game fishing after March 31, 1997 to protect Washington’s wild steelhead runs.

Following a public workshop in December, the Department of Fish and Wildlife also required wild steelhead release beginning Jan. 1 on the following waters:

Cloquallum Creek, from the mouth to the second bridge on Cloquallum Road

Elk River, upstream from the Highway 105 Bridge

Hoquiam River and its forks

Humptulips River, from the mouth upstream to the concrete bridge on the Forest Service Road between Humptulips Guard Station and Grisdale on the East Fork and the West Fork to the bridge on Forest Service Road 2204

Johns River, including the North and South Forks

Wishkah River, from the mouth to Cedar Creek

Wynoochee River, from the mouth to 7400 line bridge above the mouth of Schafer Creek

Chehalis River and its tributaries

Idaho Commission meets

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission will elect its chairman and vice-chairman at its annual meeting in Boise Thursday and Friday.

The commission is also expected to formalize the hiring of new Fish and Game department director Steve Mealey, whose selection had already been announced.

Other agenda items include the adoption of 1997 rules for hunting moose, bighorn sheep, and mountain goats, the Air Force’s proposed Expanded Training Range in the Owyhee Desert, a report on nuisance wolves in Idaho, and presentations on grizzly bear reintroductions.