Year round Bull Elk season

[Rainier10]

Exactly multiple deer and elk a week for two years and he gets house arrest monitoring.  That's one guy responsible for hundreds of animals poached.

How many others are out there only taking a couple deer or elk a year?  How many farmers are taking a few deer and elk that are eating their crops and giving them to their friends and family?  How many spike by two elk or how many 2 point deer are being  shot and snuck out of the woods or left to rot?

And are those guys worried about prosecution?  It is only a slap on the wrist for hundreds of deer and elk. What could they possibly do to a farmer who shoots 4 deer and 3 elk a year on his property that are damaging his crops?

I am here to say it is a huge problem.

You have the natives that have treaty rights saying they can harvest what they want.

At the same time you have non natives poaching knowing it is illegal but also knowing if they get caught nothing significant is going to happen to them.  If something significant happened to them you would fix half of the problem, the half that you legally have control over.

Unfortunately you have people complaining about the half that you have no control over and doing nothing about the half that you can control.

[trophyhunt]

are the east side prosecutors harder on offenders than the wetside ones?  I've always heard they are? 

[gutsnthegrass]

Agree, that azz hat got house restriction, it was a joke and slap in the face to Todd and all the other UC police that kicked butt on that case.  Those prosecutors should be strung up by their toes (being nice).  Worst case of poaching in our history and nothing was done to the offenders.

And this is a huge problem.  These poachers should be used as examples and prosecuted to the fullest extent, otherwise, the message to other poachers is they can take what they want and only get a slap on the wrist.

[NRA4LIFE]

I've always found it asenine when the news report says a poacher's hunting privileges are taken away for X number of years.  That does nothing.  If someone poaches something illegally, is making it just slightly more illegal going to stop them?  I'm guessing in most cases the answer is no.

[HillHound]

Exactly multiple deer and elk a week for two years and he gets house arrest monitoring.  That's one guy responsible for hundreds of animals poached.

How many others are out there only taking a couple deer or elk a year?  How many farmers are taking a few deer and elk that are eating their crops and giving them to their friends and family?  How many spike by two elk or how many 2 point deer are being  shot and snuck out of the woods or left to rot?

And are those guys worried about prosecution?  It is only a slap on the wrist for hundreds of deer and elk. What could they possibly do to a farmer who shoots 4 deer and 3 elk a year on his property that are damaging his crops?

I am here to say it is a huge problem.

You have the natives that have treaty rights saying they can harvest what they want.

At the same time you have non natives poaching knowing it is illegal but also knowing if they get caught nothing significant is going to happen to them.  If something significant happened to them you would fix half of the problem, the half that you legally have control over.

Unfortunately you have people complaining about the half that you have no control over and doing nothing about the half that you can control.

Like I said before people have this attitude because native or not there are certain people who will rape the resource till it’s gone. And using the wolf and fox analogy again, keeping the wolves out of the chicken house does no good when the fox is let in. So that is why people keep bringing up natives, because if we do away with all non native poaching(another major issue that needs to be heavily prosecuted)we still have a major 2 legged predator that may or may not be  decimating our elk and deer herds because there is no way to track or regulate them. Let them hunt but if the natives want anything left to hunt they better wake up and start issuing tags, even if they can get a ton of them, at least they will have numbers to make decisions off of to help the herd. Now all that matters is if there is a jerky order to fill or not. If tags are required wdfw can now enforce, even if it is to see that they have tags for the velvet bulls they are killing in June. Yes that’s right I said it, off the Rez be held accountable by our police, much like when we are on the Rez. Don’t know what’s stopping me from throwing a native pride hat on and killing anything anytime because I can’t say  I’ve ever seen wdfw checking for validation of tribe and hunting rights, unless they just know them all by name and vehicle description so there is no need to contact. I would be concerned about this if I care about the resource and was native.  I would want wdfw making sure I was legit and there wasn’t a bunch of us non native people slaying elk with Yakama nation bumper stickers.
 

[Whitefoot]

Have had multiple experiences coming across Native Americans with Bulls in the back of their pickups during the spring and summer. Just happened again last weekend. A buddy ran into a pickup with a 3 point bull loaded up. They said it’s open year round for anything with visible antlers. Our experience discussing this with the wardens felt more like they were annoyed with us talking about it then having any issues with it. Just doesn’t seem right here in 2021. What say you?

Should of just asked me bro!

[trophyhunt]

Took you long enough to pipe in, get ready mods. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the jerky guy.

[h20hunter]

 

[Whitefoot]

No pictures, but the warden was very aware. It was the Colockum

They didn't break the law.  It's totally legal for them and even if you would have taken pictures it would still be legal.   

[trophyhunt]

I wish we could have an honest, respectable talk whitefoot.  One question I have is, are you aware or what do you think of the elk population in the Yakima herd?  Do you consider the numbers when you take multiple bulls every year?  That’s not a slam on you, just curious if you think about the future of hunting sustainable herds?

[Rainier10]

Exactly multiple deer and elk a week for two years and he gets house arrest monitoring.  That's one guy responsible for hundreds of animals poached.

How many others are out there only taking a couple deer or elk a year?  How many farmers are taking a few deer and elk that are eating their crops and giving them to their friends and family?  How many spike by two elk or how many 2 point deer are being  shot and snuck out of the woods or left to rot?

And are those guys worried about prosecution?  It is only a slap on the wrist for hundreds of deer and elk. What could they possibly do to a farmer who shoots 4 deer and 3 elk a year on his property that are damaging his crops?

I am here to say it is a huge problem.

You have the natives that have treaty rights saying they can harvest what they want.

At the same time you have non natives poaching knowing it is illegal but also knowing if they get caught nothing significant is going to happen to them.  If something significant happened to them you would fix half of the problem, the half that you legally have control over.

Unfortunately you have people complaining about the half that you have no control over and doing nothing about the half that you can control.

Like I said before people have this attitude because native or not there are certain people who will rape the resource till it’s gone. And using the wolf and fox analogy again, keeping the wolves out of the chicken house does no good when the fox is let in. So that is why people keep bringing up natives, because if we do away with all non native poaching(another major issue that needs to be heavily prosecuted)we still have a major 2 legged predator that may or may not be  decimating our elk and deer herds because there is no way to track or regulate them. Let them hunt but if the natives want anything left to hunt they better wake up and start issuing tags, even if they can get a ton of them, at least they will have numbers to make decisions off of to help the herd. Now all that matters is if there is a jerky order to fill or not. If tags are required wdfw can now enforce, even if it is to see that they have tags for the velvet bulls they are killing in June. Yes that’s right I said it, off the Rez be held accountable by our police, much like when we are on the Rez. Don’t know what’s stopping me from throwing a native pride hat on and killing anything anytime because I can’t say  I’ve ever seen wdfw checking for validation of tribe and hunting rights, unless they just know them all by name and vehicle description so there is no need to contact. I would be concerned about this if I care about the resource and was native.  I would want wdfw making sure I was legit and there wasn’t a bunch of us non native people slaying elk with Yakama nation bumper stickers.

So you think the number one priority is to revise the treaty and take away the natives rights, put rules in place for them to follow before we enforce the rules that are already in place for non natives and are being broken by non natives on a regular basis at an alarming rate?

How do you think you are going to enforce these new rules and limits you put on native harvest if you already can't enforce the rules that are in place for non natives?

[trophyhunt]

Rainier, have you seen this rampant non native poaching?  I’ve spent a lot of time in the woods and I see evidence once in a while, but not enough to say rampant.  Not calling you out here, just curious where I need to start hanging out more, I need poacher points!!   Also, how do you know the left for dead animals you see aren’t from natives?

[Rainier10]

Rainier, have you seen this rampant non native poaching?  I’ve spent a lot of time in the woods and I see evidence once in a while, but not enough to say rampant.  Not calling you out here, just curious where I need to start hanging out more, I need poacher points!!

I had two elk shot on my property this year.  Turned them both in.  I assume they were shot by my neighbor filling his freezer or masterhunters hunting the DNR adjacent to me and the elk crossed the fence and died.  They just trespassed to retrieve them, deboned them and left the hide and bones on my place.   Last year my neighbor called in a poached 6 point bull elk shot on Wilson Creek road.  Two years ago I found a bull, no head but everything else still there about 100 yards off wilson creek road.  That same year in August my neighbor found a nice 6 point bull still in velvet shot and the entire left to rot.  Two or three years ago a member of the Tacoma SCI chapter called in a slaughter of cow elk in the colockum during the rifle season, maybe 13, I can't remember.  There was an article in the paper about it.  That's all in one GMU, 328 and most of it in a 9-15 square mile area.  That's not even 25% of the unit.  So yes I would say there is a huge problem.

There was another article last year about out of state hunters that shot a giant bull and were trying to take it out whole to their home state where it was legal and wouldn't be questioned.

There is not a doubt in my mind you could get 20 points a year if you camped out on my place from September to December and turned in trespassers and poachers.

[trophyhunt]

That sucks to hear, it’s all bad. But, it just as well could have been natives?  Bruce Richards (retired game warden of over 40 years), told me many stories of natives killing and leaving animals, they only took what fell in front of them. Made his veins bulge when he told the stories.  I would consider it all poaching.

[Rainier10]

Let's break down the 6 cows shot and left for dead that I saw.  Those are 6 cows that could have been shot by legal hunters.  For those 6 cows to be taken by legal hunters they look at permit success rates and hand out tags based on success not 6 tags for 6 elk they want shot.  If hunter success on archery cow permits is 20% they would have given out 30 more permits.  And those 6 are the ones I know about in a very small area.

It is calving season right now.  I have 50 cows on my place and 50 calves.  Some of those cows are yearlings and some didn't get bread.  The reason I have a one to one ratio is because there are a ton of twins.

Had half of those 6 cows that I saw dead in August been mothers of twins that is 12 calves that probably became coyote, cougar or bear food.

Again I will say yes non native poaching is a huge problem and impacts our opportunity.

Fix what you can and once that is done then work on what you can't control.