F&G diretor fined $500 for trespassing

WILDLIFE ENFORCEMENT — Idaho’s top fish and game official has pleaded guilty to one count of trespass to hunt and ordered to pay a $500 fine, the Associated Press reported this afternoon.

Idaho Fish and Game Director Cal Groen told a judge Tuesday he wasn’t hunting on the property near Elk City on Oct. 13, but just assisting others tracking an elk. Groen said only after crossing on to the land did he realize it was private and closed to public hunting.

The Lewiston Tribune reports Groen was also given a withheld judgment by Magistrate Randall Robinson. The 63-year-old director was charged with three others for crossing on to the property without permission.

Groen has said his partners previously hunted the land but were unaware it changed ownership. Groen says the lesson is hunters can’t assume they have permission to hunt on private land.