If Your Going to Poach Elk, Don’t Get Your Truck Stuck in the Process 🤦

The weekend might not be here yet, but your favorite dispatch from the great outdoors is. 

So grab your coffee or whiskey (no judgement) and let's get caught up on the outdoor news and views from the past few days. 

Here's what caught our eye this week...

• D’oh - Poacher gets his truck stuck, pending charges 🤦

• Attempted cover-up - Montana police chief embroiled in poaching scandal 👮

• A win for ranchers - Colorado ranchers given depredation tags for wolves 🐺

• Father’s Day tragedy - Fisherman drowns trying to retrieve his keys 🙏

• Bears being bears - Munching on GoPros and crashing back-yard hangouts  🐻

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST
IF YOU’RE GOING TO POACH ELK, DON’T GET YOUR TRUCK STUCK IN THE PROCESS

While I’ll never advocate for the illegal taking of wildlife, I suppose if I were to, I’d offer up the suggestion of ensuring that you have some sort of reliable method of escape. And I wouldn’t recommend boasting about it on social media either.

But as with most criminals, thinking things through doesn’t always land high up on the list of priorities, and for that, I remain thankful. 

This was the case in an elk poaching investigation that kicked off last fall in Carbon County, Wyoming, just south of Rawlins. It was the first of November and search and rescue officers received a call from a group of hunters reporting that one of their friends had gone missing. 

“Carbon County Dispatch Center received a call from another elk hunter just after daybreak on Nov. 1, 2023, who reported finding a disoriented individual near Miller Hill who matched the description of the missing individual,” according to Game and Fish.

It turns out the missing individual had gotten his truck stuck and wandered off to try and find some help. As search and rescue officials descended on the scene, they noticed a couple of things that didn’t quite add up, including “blood and other indications” of a big game kill…

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👮 Attempted cover-up - A Montana police chief is in hot water after allegations surfaced around a number of illegally killed mule deer and a tampered with witness. Jeremy Lee Swisher, the current police chief of Glendive, MT, could be facing felony charges for hunting violations on a reservation and two counts of tampering with a witness.

Court documents revealed that the accused chief had three mule deer buck racks from deer that were illegally killed on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. While Swisher maintains that he was invited to kill the deer on the reservation with a tribal member, Title 19 of the Fort Peck Tribes Comprehensive Code of Justice clearly states that, “there is no provision that allows for non-members to hunt deer by themselves or while accompanied by a member of the tribe. Hunting mule deer on the reservation by a non-tribal member is entirely prohibited.” 

According to the filing, Swisher attempted to induce or otherwise cause witnesses to provide investigators with false information and to withhold information from investigators. He’s set to appear in court on July 9th.

🐺 A win for Colorado ranchers - There’s seemingly nothing quite as contentious as wolves in the west at the moment and some recent changes signal a win for the good guys. While none of us here are against reintroducing wolves (or any species for that matter) into their historical range, we do and always will, advocate for sound management of said species.  Particularly those that are predatory in nature.

As a step in the right direction, Colorado’s Parks and Wildlife Commission approved new regulations allowing for the lethal management of wolves that depredate livestock.  When the new rules come into play in August, ranchers will be able to obtain an  “In the Act” permit from CPW to kill a gray wolf that is caught in the act of attacking livestock or working dogs (but not any other pets or hunting dogs) on their land. 

These permits can be issued retroactively so long as the rancher provides the proper evidence to the agency and reports the killing within 72 hours.

“Acceptable physical evidence includes but is not limited to photographs or video with GPS coordinates attached,” the rules stipulate.

🙏 NY fisherman drowns on Father’s Day - An unfortunate accident has left one man dead and his friend in hospital after trying to retrieve a set of keys from a lake. Anthony Clay, 44, was fishing with his friend Wattie Capers, 42, and another friend in the Finger Lakes area on Sunday to celebrate Father’s Day. According to a statement from the Oswego County Sheriff’s Office, Davis accidentally dropped his keys from the pier they were fishing on. 

Attempting to retrieve them, Davis jumped in the water and was quickly overcome. Wattie then followed, jumping into the water in an attempt to save his friend. 

Oswego County Sheriff’s Office Marine Patrol responded to the screams for help and were able to retrieve Capers and get him to hospital in time to save his life. Unfortunately, by the time rescue reached Davis, it was too late. He was later pronounced dead at an upstate New York hospital. Davis is survived by his wife and children.

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🎥 Did someone lose a GoPro? If so, this friendly bear found it. Watch as a curious black bear munches on a GoPro that continues to roll.

🐻 Room for one more? Watch as a big ‘ol bear strolls up on the back porch in the middle of a casual hangout and surprises an older couple. I think he just wanted in on the convo…

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It travels across 17 countries and six timezones - it’s the longest walkable route on Earth that no human has completed…yet. I’m one who still apreciates the past and that’s why I will be putting vintage slang words like sauce-box and Arf’arf’an’arf into use. Which is also why I’m so very interested in the re-emergence of analog photography. And since it’s Friday, here’s five sure-fire ways to escape from prison, should the opportunity present itself.

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“Man in the Sea”.
📸 @austinleathersphoto