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Show Killing wildlife ouf otf season is serious crime H Hart! V lom Kprf! Outdoors W riter iiuo out of season- say poach a iUvr yn vulnerable, as most are during ,y winter season? ; observation officer would tell you i.f u.ser is, you don't know ! "Anyone vhe persiin a good CO has learned to tptvt The reason? Housewives, kills, even "sportsmen" who no room in the freezer for any en i son, have been guilty of it in ti V't The crime has many parallels to y.:!inS People who really have no Willie reason for stealing the tV'.c's iVer, elk, or wildlife, are often Vor.es who do it. It seems to be a " re. at least until caught, when a Station is tarnished, or in some ies. destroyed. tvoe when 1 visited a small I'tah cvr.p.unity a friend's acquaintance y.uced he had killed 27 bucks the Jrfoed.r.i w inter. He was going out that r ch! "to get a good start on this one." He cUimed the family needed the -eat They all loved venison, and if no ore k."ew what Mr. Poacher was doing, ouM haw to be blind. I jon't know how he fared that night , ) his truck and spotlight, but the following autumn 1 was in that region hunting dtvr whori we met him after several days of hunting. "Haven't seen a decent buck since opening morning. Fish and Came people are sure doing a lousy job managing our deer herds!" Since 1 could scarcely believe what I was hearing, I asked him to repeat his ami plaint. He did, with as much fervor as the first time. I asked him point-blank: "Don't you think you have something to do with the lack of game around here?" He shrugged. The 26 illegal bucks he boasted about killing in the off-season were antlered deer I'd like to have had a crack at during the season. Shortly after my confrontation with Mr. Poacher I told him that as long as he continued with his cheating methods, I would hunt elsewhere and influence friends to do likewise. That little town depended heavily on hunting and fishing tourism to survive, especially with its past reputation for trophy deer. That was 20 years ago, and I've never been back. Where was the law, you say? Even an energetic CO (and most of them work 60-80 hours a week while paid for 40) cannot patrol all of his domain. Take Tooele County's Jim Kkins, for example. I've driven with Jim in his four-wheel drive all day through a small segment of his more than 8.000 square mile beat. We didn't even get close to the eastern half of his region. "If the citizens would just realize it is their game which is being stolen, not mine, we could substantially curtail poaching," Kkins told me. "Hut we will prevent it only if the local people react to it as their own game being destroyed," he emphasized. "Poachers often take a rump roast, and leave the rest to rot," he added. Hut not too many habitual poachers are going to get around dedicated officers of-ficers like Kkins. He not only works nights, and will travel, but he talks to every soul he sees in back country. Most of them report anything amiss. He also talks to arrested poachers, who in turn have confessed many names into Kkins' tape recorder. I have seen the same thing in L'intah County with the many dedicated COs there who have the massive Hook Cliffs, as well as Diamond Mountain and south slope Uintas, to patrol. And as long as judges and JIs realize poachers are thieves, they will continue to toss the toughest statutes at them. When they do, sportsmen win! f . ','... . '' k '.'.' - ; - i - rr - -.,v . r " '- ' '.V ' - . : i . ... .. ' t r i . . - , . .i ..V -.-'r '" 1 ' ' .-. - " - v ,- 'yi'' - '. ' v j -'.'. v mi. : . ' I - t : ."-. . i- mm -v" r ,-v ,tv " '- ... , ; , ix '-v-' f'sj . -A - i -.,.--, .i 4 ' . .., t:-,- -1. - - ; ' - - -. . .r x ;r;v-.' - CONSERVATION OFFICER patrols seldom-used back road in search of poachers. |