Copyright 2002 The Denver Post Corporation The Denver
Post
May 19, 2002 Sunday 2D EDITION
SECTION: SPORTS; Pg. C-10
LENGTH: 1197 words
HEADLINE:
Poachers threatening wildlife, coffers
BYLINE:
Charlie Meyers, OUTDOORS,
BODY: The
scofflaws run the gamut from organized gangs scouting from airplanes
to liquored-up locals taking potshots out the windows of pickup
trucks. They range from big-money cartels marketing trophy heads and
endangered species to a next-door neighbor with a hankering for an
extra elk steak.
Collectively these offenders represent
a dire threat to Colorado's wildlife and a drain of millions from the
state's coffers, Department of Wildlife officials say. These are
poachers, wildlife thieves, and the animals they steal for fun
and, increasingly, for profit are your own.
'I have a sense that poaching keeps getting
worse, particularly the commercial part of it,' said John
Bredehoft, chief of law enforcement for the Colorado Division of
Wildlife.
At a time when a trophy elk commands a price
tag ranging upwards of $ 50,000 and residents of certain Asian
countries clamor for various animal parts, illegal trade in wildlife
has spiraled into big business. Operations once centered around
exotics such as elephant ivory and leopard skins overseas concentrate
on deer, elk and bear, hitting far closer to home. Whether the
illicit dealings involve the sale of trophy racks or bear gall bladders, wildlife officials grow
increasingly alarmed.
'There's always been a thriving
market in animal parts. I don't know if there's more out there now or
whether our intelligence is growing,' said Roger Gephart, U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service senior agent for Colorado. Once primarily
the province of meat hunters, poaching has climbed into a new
strata of big money and bigger egos.
'At the
upper end, money and greed are the driving forces,' Gephart said.
'People keep flocking in who are willing to pay high-dollar amounts
and use questionable methods.'
Among those, Gephart
said, are poachers using aircraft for sighting and harassing prized
animals, as well as the use of sophisticated communication devices
such as global positioning systems. Spread thin, wildlife officers
often are at a loss to keep pace. Arrests for poaching have remained
fairly stagnant the past 10 years, but DOW officials chalk that up to
a lack of manpower rather than criminality, as well as the
sophistication of the poachers.
'The bad
guys, the serious, commercial market hunters and smugglers, are
getting better and better at what they do,' said Terry Grosz, the
former enforcement chief for the USFWS Rocky Mountain Region who has
written several books on the subject. 'The U.S. and Canada have a
combined population of approximately 300 million and just 10,500
wildlife officers - state, federal and tribal. Custer had better
odds.'
Bredehoft commands a force of 135 district
wildlife managers, game wardens, if you will - 10 more than he had 18
months ago but not nearly enough to watch an area of 100,000 square
miles.
'My first district assignment 10 years ago
covered 2,400 square miles,' Eric Harper, Bredehort's chief
lieutenant, said of a territory the size of Delaware. 'I didn't see
some places more than once a year.'
Gephart
presides over a staff of three criminal investigators - in a good
year.
Before this latest staff increase, DOW went more
than a decade without adding a single DWM, even as population
and responsibilities exploded. Wildlife officers who once spent
most of their time chasing violators now are assigned a multitude
of tasks ranging from dealing with bears turning over garbage cans
to land-use issues to kids' classroom education. While they
aren't looking, an emboldened cadre of violators is running off with
fish and game.
During 2001, Colorado
officers wrote 5,479 citations for a wide variety of violations,
compared with 6,783 in 1992. No one in the DOW believes that an
expanding population suddenly has become more law abiding. Their view
is that wardens with a severe case of split vision have less time to
catch the miscreants.
A substantial percentage of the
violations involve pursuit of fish and game without a license, a
gambit that Bredehoft believes costs the wildlife agency millions of
dollars. The enforcement chief is particularly disturbed at the
tendency of nonresidents to illegally pose as residents, a practice
abetted by lax penalties.
'The fine for illegally
obtaining a license is only $ 250,' Bredehoft said. 'A nonresident
can save $ 420 by buying a resident bull elk license.'
To combat poachers, wildlife officers pursue a wide range
of gambits ranging from undercover sleuthing to night
decoy operations to raids on places where illegal game is stored.
In between they make thousands of daily contacts with sportsmen,
good and bad.
Many of the violations involve
licensed sportsmen who shoot an extra animal or exceed the limit on
fish. Others are carefully planned assaults directed toward mass
slaughter.
In perhaps the most celebrated poaching case
in Colorado history, state and federal officials arrested 108 people
in March 1989 in the San Luis Valley for the illegal killing and sale
of wildlife, after a longstanding undercover investigation. In a
more recent case, DOW and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms are pursuing Vincent C. Brown, operator of an Estes Park
taxidermy shop where officers discovered a cache of illegal animals
part, including the head of a bighorn sheep and the hide of a bear
cub. Brown remains at large, but Harper remains confident he'll
be caught, thanks to another recent weapon added to the enforcement
quiver.
'We've got him on our website, and we get calls
from all over the country suggesting where he might be,' Harper
said.
The fate of another offender illustrates the
success that cooperation among agencies sometimes brings. Wendell J.
Cook of Montrose fled the state May 23, 2001, the day he was to
be sentenced for felony and misdemeanor counts involving the
poaching of five deer, two elk, two antelope and a black bear. Cook
was recently arrested in Michigan and extradited to Colorado.
Harper recalls apprehending a taxidermist in his old
district near Pueblo who routinely paid $ 2,000 to $ 3,000 for large
racks, and then made replicas for resale. Such trade helps explain
a trend that particularly disturbs Bredehoft, the
increasing discovery of headless carcasses on wintering grounds where
trophy animals gather.
Another tactic
gaining cachet involves the use of a global positioning system to
post the location of a prize animal. Violators then return after dark
to shoot it.
Bredehoft also cites a distressing surge
in what he calls 'thrill killings,' cases where animals are simply
shot and left to rot. In a celebrated recent rampage near Craig, an
estimated 83 deer and antelope were shot along local roadways. The
four offenders included three juveniles.
Bredehoft emphasizes that poaching crosses every strata
of society.
'The problem won't begin to go
away until the public takes a more active part in the solution,' he
said.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO:
The Denver Post/Charlie Meyers Tom Kroening determines the legality of an elk
killed last hunting season, among the primary duties of a district wildlife
manager. GRAPHICS: The Denver Post Unlawful possessions for big game Poaching
menace
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