Don’T Ignore Poachers

Once in a while poachers get what’s coming to them and law-abiding anglers and hunters are pleased that the cheaters pay big fines, serve time in jail and have their rods and guns confiscated.

Unfortunately, poachers usually get away with their transgressions. Catching them, wildlife agents will tell you, is difficult, and some poachers break the fish and game laws year after year without seeing the inside of a court.

The violators of fish and game regulations range from many who park in no-parking areas and fish without licenses to the big-time poachers who illegally sell bear gall bladders and who kill more elk, deer and other animals and game birds than they are allowed.

Few anglers and hunters help the fish and wildlife agencies by getting on the poaching hot lines. At Amber Lake recently, for example, numerous members of a fly club having a “fish out” knew that several fly fishers, none of whom was affiliated with the club, illegally parked their cars at the launch site and failed to display parking decals.

Club members talked among themselves about the illegal parking, but no one got on the Fish and Wildlife Department’s hot line to report the violations. However, one club official told the owner of one of the vehicles that he was violating regulations by parking on the launch site. The fly fisher said he parked there because he felt there would be few other fishers that day. He was told that more than 20 fly club members would be fishing the lake. He still didn’t move his car. It still didn’t dawn on him that he was a lawbreaker.

If it weren’t for conscientious hunters and anglers who report violators of fish and game laws, some of the biggest poaching cases never would reach the courts.

Last month, a fisherman who was fishing along the Snake River below Lower Granite Dam became aware that several anglers were illegally catching and killing sturgeon. He called the Washington State Patrol and a patrol immediately notified the Fish and Wildlife Department and called wildlife officer Jim Nelson of Pomeroy. Nelson called for and received backup during the arrests of five men.

The five men had 15 sturgeon between 21 and 24 inches in their possession. The daily limit is only sturgeon between 48 and 60 inches.

A Whitman County judge sentenced the men to pay over $5,000 in fines and spend time in jail. One of the men was sentenced to 30 days in jail and assessed $1,500 in fines. Another was fined $2,000 and given 90 days in jail. The others received lesser sentences.

Nelson said the department would not have been able to make a case without the call from the fisherman who had seen the poachers kill the sturgeon.

One of Idaho’s biggest elk poaching cases during the last year was the result of a tip received by hunters who became aware that two men had dressed out three elk, left them overnight and returned the next morning with mules to pack the elk out.

A judge sentenced one of the men to 60 days in jail, fines and costs amounting to $6,500, four years probation and lifetime license revocation after the man pleaded guilty to two charges of unlawful possession of game. The poacher also was ordered to forfeit his rifle and scope. The other later pleaded guilty to illegal possession of game.

Many of the poaching reports received by wildlife agencies come from members of sportsmen’s organizations. More than the typical angler or hunter, sportsmen who are members of such groups as the Inland Northwest Wildlife Council are aware that poachers and other violators of fish and game laws hurt conscientious hunters in many ways.

Persons who poach fish and game often ignore “No trespassing” signs, cause erosion by driving over sensitive areas, litter property owners’ land with their garbage and even cut fences to gain access. As a result, many property owners no longer permit even law-abiding hunters on their land.

The Inland Northwest Wildlife Council offers a $500 reward to persons who provide tips that result in convictions for poaching bighorn sheep, caribou or grizzly bears. The club also has a standing offer of $250 for information leading to conviction of a person who causes significant damage to private hunting while hunting or fishing.

Unfortunately, the majority of anglers and hunters who see or know of the poaching of fish and game don’t want to become involved or still feel guilty of “squealing” on poachers.

However, more and more sportsmen and landowners are telephoning on hot lines of fish and game agencies and giving enough information on lawbreakers for enforcement officers to make cases.

Numerous hunters and fishers now carry cell phones. They can get help quickly in case their vehicle breaks down in places where there are few farm houses.

They use their cell phones to call hot lines or wildlife offices when they see hunters or anglers breaking fish and game laws.

One of the problems a sportsman has when he or she sees a fish or game violation is to get in touch with enforcement officers before the poachers are gone. By using a cell phone, a person can make it possible for a wildlife agent to be on the scene before the lawbreaker or breakers vanish.