Cooperation nets suspected poachers

by Derek Farr

A combination of citizen action and interagency cooperation netted the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (G&F) two suspects in a weekend poaching incident that left several pronghorn antelope dead.

On Saturday morning, a Jackson-area hunter called the “Stop Poaching” hotline to report an incident south of Big Piney.

Big Piney Game Warden Adam Hymas and South Pinedale Game Warden Brian Nesvik responded to the location and found four dead antelope – three does and one yearling buck – that had been shot and left or dumped.

Furnished with a description of the suspects’ vehicle, Saturday’s search results were disappointing.

“We weren’t able to make contact with them,” Nesvik said.

With the G&F, Sublette County Sheriff’s Office and the Wyoming Highway Patrol on alert, a break came Sunday when an off-duty state trooper reported seeing the suspects’ vehicle.

Hymas and Nesvik responded to a home south of Pinedale where they found the vehicle, two men and antelope the men had harvested.

Nesvik said one man was preparing to leave for Arkansas when the wardens intervened. The other man, who is unemployed, has lived in the area for about a month. Both men had Wyoming hunting licenses.

The two have not been charged yet, but both face multiple counts.

The G&F will release their names after they have been charged. Both wardens expect that to happen in about a week.

Nesvik said on most counts the two face $1,000 fines, the potential loss of hunting privileges for three years, six months in jail and possibly restitution.

Nesvik applauded the coordinated effort to catch the suspects.

“It was a good team effort,” he said. “It took a lot of people from different professions and different agencies to get them.”

Hymas called it “excellent cooperation of all the agencies.”

In other news, the investigation continues for the individual(s) responsible for last month’s incident where two mule deer were wounded with crossbow arrows east of Pinedale.

The arrows were tipped with field points.

Both deer survived the initial shooting but later had to be euthanized.

“We’re not done yet,” Nesvik said. “We’re still talking to a bunch of folks.”

Nesvik would not release information about the exact type of equipment used, saying, “You take a lot of risks when you put that kind of stuff out there.”

He said releasing the information might hinder the investigation “somewhere down the road.”

Anybody with information about any poaching incident

is urged to call Nesvik at 367-2470, the Pinedale Game and Fish Office at 367-4353 or the Stop Poaching Hotline at 1 (877) WGFD-TIP.