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Show Outdoor Wisdom iVom Hartt Wixom 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 27 illegal bucks he blasted about killing in the off-season were antlered deer Id like to have had a crack at during the season. Shortly after my confrontation confronta-tion with Mr. Poacher I told him that as long as he continued with his cheating methods, I would hunt elsewhere else-where 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 Ekins, 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," Ekins told me. "But we will prevent it only if the local people react to it as their own game being destroyed," des-troyed," he emphasized. "Poachers often take a rump roast, and leave the rest to rot," he added. But not too many habitual poachers are going to get around dedicated officers like Ekins. 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 Ekin's tape recorder. I have seen the same thing in Uintah County with the many dedicated COs there who have the massive Book Cliffs, as well as Diamond Mountain and south slope Unitas, to patrol. And as long as judges and JPs realize poachers are thieves, they will continue to toss the toughest statutes at them. When they do, sportsmen win! What kind of person would shoot wildlife out of season say poach a deer when vulnerable, as most are during the winter season? A conservation officer would tell yen the answer is. you don't know! "Anyone" is the person a good CO has learned to suspect. The reason? Hcsisew. ives. college kids, even "sportsmen" who have r.o room in the freezer for any more venison, have been guilty cf it in the past. The crime has many parallels to shoplifting. People Peo-ple who really have no economic reason for stealing the public's deer, elk, or wildlife, are often the ones who do it. It seems to be a game, at least until caught, when a reputation is tarnished, tar-nished, or in some cases, destroyed. Once when I visited a small Utah community, a friend's acquaintance bragged brag-ged he had killed 27 bucks the preceding winter. He was going out that night "to get a good start on this one." He claimed the family needed the meat. They all loved venison, and if no one knew what Mr. Poacher was doing, all would have to be blind. I don't know how he fared that night with his truck and spotlight, but the following autumn, I was in that region hunting deer wh en we met him after several days of hunting. "Haven't seen a decent buck since opening morning. Fish and Game people are sure doing a lousy job managing our deer herds!" Since I could scarcely scar-cely believe what I was hearing, I asked him to repeat his complaint. |
