Rewriting the rules
A rash of incidents in Central Washington at the end of January is tarnishing Washington’s Advanced Hunter Education (AHE) program. Founded in 1991, the voluntary program seeks to train and recognize a corps of elite sportsmen whose ethical standards and technical proficiency rise above the realm of the average hunter.
However, a few hunters have aspired to the AHE certification — and the Master Hunter card that came with it — to abuse its privileges, which include special hunting seasons.
While they have had to study course material and pass an exam, the absence of a background check and other verification have allowed a few bad apples to slip in, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officials say. The agency currently is revising the program.
“This thing,” says one of the men overseeing the transformation, “needs a tune-up.”
Master Hunter opportunities include taking a second antlerless or spike elk in some areas when the agency needs help dealing with elk getting into agricultural areas.
Master Hunters have a longer season in which to harvest that second elk, lasting from August through the end of January. But as that period came to an end, some of the distinguished hunters got greedy, said Capt. Rich Mann, WDFW enforcement officer.
In just five days, Yakima-based wildlife enforcement officers dealt with four questionable incidents involving seven AHE-qualified hunters. The possible infractions, some of which will bring charges included:
“Hunting in a state park (Ginkgo Petrified Forest, near Vantage in Kittitas County), which is illegal.
“Firing a gun from, along or across a public roadway — in this case, shooting across two lanes of Old Vantage Highway to take an elk, possibly before the legal shooting hour, and then failing to tag it possibly as long as a half-hour after the animal was killed.
“Harassing or herding elk across a state park (also Ginkgo, though this was a separate incident) to an armed hunting partner waiting just outside the park boundary.
“Exceeding the limit on elk.
State wildlife enforcement officer Steve Rogers is a Master Hunter and it’s a status that, he says, “I take very seriously.” So he was extremely disappointed to find two other AHE peers going after elk nine days ago within Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park.
The two men, from Gig Harbor and Port Townsend, told Rogers they didn’t know they were on a state park and asked if he could show them on a map where they were. His response: If you’re a Master Hunter, you should be able to show me on a map where you are.
“I believe mistakes happen,” Rogers says. “People can get confused. Maybe they read a map wrong. But I expect (experienced hunters) to be able to sort it out or find somebody who can help them out beforehand. They should have known better.”
The final damning evidence? The hunters’ truck was parked between two state park signs.
Enforcement Sgt. Mike Sprecher and a co-worker responded to both the failure-to-tag incident, which involved 40- and 57-year-old hunters from Selah, and the Ginkgo herding incident involving two 50-something hunters from the greater Seattle area.
The questionable issues around an incident involving two Master Hunters was disappointing to Sprecher. “We’re wanting to use the best quality hunters we can get (in the AHE program),” he says. “If this is the best we can get, we’re in trouble.”
The 39-year-old Yakima man who took two elk on the same day received mixed reviews from enforcement agents. He was hunting northwest of Tieton, when he shot at a cow elk. The group bolted, and the hunter thought he had missed, then fired again.
His first shot had connected, and so had his second. Unfortunately, he aimed at two different elk.
As soon as he realized he had killed a second elk, even before field-dressing the first he called wildlife enforcement officials to report his gaffe. And then waited the 90 minutes until Mann arrived to take his statement.
Charges may yet be filed in this case pending a review of the case, but Mann says the “mitigating circumstances” might — and should — have a bearing on how things turn out.
“That’s a situation he could have walked away from, and probably no one would have been the wiser,” Mann says. “Those are the ones that make it hard on our end: It appears the guy’s doing everything he should do, he has no real reason to turn himself in except for his own integrity.
“It’s tough on us as officers. You can’t just let the guy walk away scot-free, but here’s a guy with some honesty and integrity, and the circumstances were just bad to begin with. There’s an ethic to saying, ‘I messed up.’”
Where the hunter messed up was in his haste to take a second shot when he not yet ascertained whether the first shot hit his intended target. And if he is ultimately cited, Mann says, the hunter — ethical standards and all — will lose his Master Hunter privileges.
“Regardless,” Mann says, “you’re still responsible for your shot.”