WILDLIFE ENFORCEMENT – The usual suspects and activities kept Washington Fish and Wildlife officers plenty busy, according to the latest weekly report.  But before getting to the criminal activity, its worth noting that the officers occasionally have to laugh at themselves.

Several flocks of turkeys that are over-flourishing on the South Hill have been causeing neighbors a lot of grief, and officers a lot of headaches.

One officer, two biologists and several volunteers attempted to use a net gun to capture a flock frequenting one neighborhood. What did they learn?

“The turkeys could out-run the net gun even at 15 feet!” the report said.

Read on for a mere sampling of last week’s enforcement activity highlights in this region.

Highlights from last week’s wildlife enforcement officers’ report include:

• Checking more than a dozen taxidermists and wholesale fish dealers in the Spokane area.
• Working on a case involving a local pawn shop that was illegally in possession of a bald eagle claw and feathers.
• Responding to a deer that was shot with an arrow in a Spokane Valley gated community.
• Patrolling the Snake River for steelhead fishing. (Activity had been light because of  poor river conditions, but it’s picking up.)
• Looking into several deer poaching cases and night patrolling an area of reported spotlighting.
• Boat patrolling on Rock Lake, where they found several boating safety and fishing violations.
• Checking a FWOL Lummi Tribal member ice fishing on Hatch Lake. The man politely advised the officer that he will prove in court that his tribal identification is sufficient to fish anywhere in North America.
• Checking Sno-Park areas throughout the northeast corner of the state and patrolling snowmobile trails on the Colville National Forest. In 60 contacts with snowmobilers, officers wrote tickets for expired registration, no registration and for fictitious display of registration. Citations also were issued for possession of marijuana to two snowmobile users. Warnings were issued for additional violations.
• Fielding numerous complaints of cougars prowling for pets or livestock in various areas of the region, but most cases – not all – appeared to be problems with loose-running dogs, which also were responsible for dead or injured deer.