Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 14, 1995 TAG: 9505150056
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Time was when hunters might have chuckled over such ingenuity, maybe even turned the character into a folk hero for his ability to outsmart the game warden.
But now we know he hasn't just been fooling the game warden. He has been stealing from all of us who call ourselves hunters. Stealing our game. Stealing our days afield. Stealing our credibility.
Every hunter should be shocked by data from the recently completed turkey research project by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries that shows nearly one-quarter of the mortality of hen turkeys in Virginia is at the hands of poachers. That means poachers kill about as many turkeys as legal hunters.
``There has been a lot of speculation that poaching is fairly high, but I guess I still didn't want to believe that it was as high as it actually came out,'' said Bob Duncan, chief of the department's game division.
It isn't just high. It is unacceptable. The cost of poaching can be measured by the fact that hunters will be sacrificing several weeks of fall sport beginning this year in an effort to give the turkey population an opportunity to expand at a faster rate. Were poaching not a factor, you have to wonder if the cutback would have been considered.
When data from the turkey research first was presented, there was a prevailing feeling that little could be done about the high rate of mortality from illegal hunters. It was considered a fact of turkey life, the same as the finding that another 50 percent of the hen mortality was the result of the teeth and talons of wild predators. So all the adjustments that were made on behalf of turkeys came from the fall season, which was shortened to Oct.30-Nov.11 and Dec.11-Jan.6.
It is unfortunate that an anti-poaching effort wasn't high on the list of recommendations from the turkey study. But we can be thankful that late in the research discussions the feeling grew that something could be done about poaching.
``Every bit of illegal kill that can be decreased will accelerate the growth rate of the turkey population,'' Duncan said.
While nothing like war has been declared on poachers, game wardens have been arming themselves with some interesting weapons. The anti-poaching effort will include the use of mechanical turkey decoys to snare road hunters in the fall and hen killers in the spring, said Col. Jeff Uerz, chief of the game department's law enforcement division. High-tech electronic surveillance equipment will be employed to keep an eye on areas where turkey baiting is practiced. Some of the funding for these efforts has been provided by the Virginia Chapter of the Wild Turkey Federation.
There also are early discussions about redesigning the big-game license to make it tougher for anyone to reuse his tag time and again while exceeding the annual turkey limit.
One of the biggest deterrents to poaching, Duncan said, is the assistance lawful sportsmen can provide.
``It is important for the sportsmen within the state to realize that through peer pressure and cooperation with our law enforcement the illegal kill can be decreased,'' Duncan said.
Hunters no longer can coddle the outlaws in their ranks. If we tolerate - and even admire poachers - we become outlaws ourselves.
We have learned from the turkey study that when we don't clean up our act, there are people in our ranks ready to clean us out.
by CNB