Thursday, November 10, 2016 | B5
Times-News
OUTDOORS
Decoy nabs shooter
Shot from road drops Fish and Game’s artificial elk VIRGINIA HUTCHINS
vhutchins@magicvalley.com
ERIC BARKER
ETCHUM — Shortly after K sunrise, a cow elk and her calf pause in a small clearing, looking toward the pair of hunters walking up Warm Springs Road. One man kneels on the edge of the road, aims his rifle and drops the cow with a single, perfectly placed shot. She falls on one side with a thud, revealing that her other is nothing but plywood. Her head pops off, tumbling a few rolls down the slope. And Alex Head, carrying a gun belt and handcuffs under his camo, steps out of the bushes. Shooting from a public road will earn this hunter a citation. It’s exactly the act for which this elaborate stage was set on the morning of Nov. 5: Two artificially simulated animals placed about 150 yards from Warm Springs Road west of Ketchum, in hunting Unit 48. Three Idaho Department of Fish and Game officers in full camouflage — one with a video camera — hidden in blinds on the opposite slope. And two uniformed officers in the take-down truck, waiting nearby up Barr Gulch Road. This time, the cast had an extra: One camo-clad reporter with a notebook, an iPhone and a fivehour supply of snacks.
Lewiston Tribune
‘Nobody likes to feel tricked’ As Head drove the undercover team’s unmarked green Ford up the Warm Springs drainage in 7 a.m. darkness, regional conservation officer Josh Royse explained Fish and Game’s policy on artificially simulated animals, which most people call decoys. “Nobody likes to feel tricked, so we’re very judicious on how we use these tools,” said Royse, who supervises Fish and Game’s other south-central Idaho officers. That means the agency sets up its game decoys only in areas where it has received complaints about illegal or unethical behavior such as trespassing, spotlighting, shooting from a motorized vehicle or wasting game. “We don’t just put these up based on a hunch,” Royse said. “We’re not fishing for violations.” Head, the senior conservation officer whose patrol territory includes the Warm Springs drainage, took complaints about people shooting from the road here — a danger to public safety. Also, Warm Springs Road is the boundary between two antlerless elk hunts that were open Nov. 5, and a hunter with a tag for one controlled hunt might be tempted to shoot on the other side of the road. To eliminate excuse for confusion, Head and senior conservation officer Lee Garwood the day
VIRGINIA HUTCHINS PHOTOS, TIMES-NEWS
Brandyn Hurd, an Idaho Department of Fish and Game senior conservation officer, videos from a blind as fellow officers confront a hunter who illegally shot from Warm Springs Road west of Ketchum on Nov. 5. before had put up bright-yellow unit boundary signs on Warm Springs Road, within sight of where drivers who spot the decoy elk might stop. They also prepped the site — dragging dead branches to build the officers’ blinds and hiding the decoys under a tarp in the weeds. “We spend a lot of time and effort selecting the specific spot we put these,” Royse said as the green Ford bumped over ruts and potholes. The decoy placement needs to be visible but believable, and it must ensure that anyone who can see the decoys won’t shoot toward something unsafe Senior conservation officer Lee Garwood hauls an elk decoy back to an Idaho Department of Fish and Game truck after a Nov. 5 operation west — like a trail or a campground. of Ketchum. Or me, I thought.
‘Give me a radio check’
Where Garwood waited in the darkness on Warm Springs Road, the three officers in camo piled out of the green Ford: Royse, Head and senior conservation officer Brandyn Hurd. Head pointed with his flashlight toward a pile of branches high on the slope to
the north. That’s where I’d spend the next five hours, surveying the road below, a picturesque stretch of Warm Springs Creek, a beaver pond, the snow-dusted slopes to the south and — in a clearing among the trees beyond the creek — the cow elk and her calf.
“Give me a radio check at 7:40,” Garwood told Head, driving the green Ford away. Please see DECOY, Page B6
More online: See more photos
of the decoy operation in a Magicvalley.com gallery.
Pomerelle fixes lift, keeps 2015 prices VIRGINIA HUTCHINS
vhutchins@magicvalley.com
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Wild sheep group not pushing auction tags
ALBION — Heading into the second season of its new E-Z Rider triple chairlift, Pomerelle Mountain Resort said it will keep daily tickets unchanged from 2015-16 rates. But the resort with a base lodge at 8,000 feet hasn’t named an opening date yet. “There have been years when we’ve been open on Halloween, crazy as it sounds,” spokeswoman Gretchen Anderson said. Pomerelle has limited snow-making capabilities, so it doesn’t open until it has both enough snow on the ground and enough storms in the forecast to indicate it can stay open. Three-quarters of the resort’s opening dates have been right around Thanksgiving, Anderson said. Pomerelle discovered engineering issues while using the new E-Z Rider lift last winter and addressed those this summer. “Certainly the public was at no risk,” Anderson said. But failing to fix them would have shortened the life of the lift. Pomerelle regulars will notice some changes this winter — though nothing as flashy as last
TIMES-NEWS FILE PHOTO
Elizabeth Woodland skis in a spring 2013 kids competition at Pomerelle Mountain Resort in Albion. year’s E-Z Rider. The resort replaced its old groomer with a new PistenBully machine, cleared brush for more glade skiing on the E-Z Rider side of the mountain and added $20,000 of new Rossignol and Burton equipment to its ski and
snowboard rental fleet, circulating out the oldest gear. Skiers aren’t likely to notice the installation of a new stove, grill, fryer and other kitchen equipment, but they’ll see fresher options on the lodge cafe’s menu this winter. Most Pomerelle visitors want
french fries and hamburgers, Anderson said, but some have asked for “greenery.” “We want to make sure everyone’s happy at Pomerelle,” she said. The resort styles itself as a teaching mountain, offering discounted school programs for students in seventh grade and up. They commit to a four- to eightweek session, and lessons are on weekdays or weeknights. But the prices are attractive: $15 for lift and lesson, $10 for ski package rental and $15 for snowboard package rental. “We do offer special learn-toski-or-ride rates to schools and organized groups that come on weekends or for one-time field trips,” Anderson said. “For these events, elementary schools receive the greatest discounts.” Pomerelle’s long, gentle Milk Run has an incline of about 17 degrees — “just enough to get you down the hill,” she said — and its school program draws kids from as far away as Mountain Home, Idaho Falls and Pocatello. Other ages can learn here, too. For $40, you can participate in a group lesson and have a rental package for the day. An hour-long private lesson is $60.
LEWISTON — The director of the Wild Sheep Foundation said the chairman of the hunting and conservation group’s board was not speaking for the organization when he lobbied Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter to shake up membership of the state Fish and Game Commission over its opposition to auction tags. But the foundation’s executive director said board Chairman Doug Sayer of Pocatello was within his rights to do so. “We as an organization do not get involved in allocation (of hunting tags), be that resident or nonresident, be that whether a state, province, territory or tribal entity does or does not offer auction tags or raffle tags and, if they do, how many,” said Gray Thornton of Bozeman, Mont. “We just feel that is inappropriate for us as an organization to get into. But that said, we certainly encourage our members in each jurisdiction to be actively involved in that.” Last month, the Idaho Wildlife Federation released a cache of email exchanges it acquired between key state legislators, the governor’s office and Sayer showing how they pressed for more auction tags — permits for coveted species such as bighorn sheep, moose, mountain goats, elk, deer and antelope that are sold to the highest bidder — and how they responded when the commission declined. Each year, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission allocates one bighorn sheep hunting tag to the Wild Sheep Foundation. The group then auctions the tag for the state, sometimes fetching a six-figure price. The money is used by the state for wild sheep management and research. The commission does not offer any other tags for auction, but some, like Sayer, have advocated for an expansion of the program. Doing so would raise more money for wildlife management, according to proponents. But opponents say it favors wealthy hunters who can purchase tags instead of winning them via a lottery. Acquired through the state’s Public Records Law, the email cache included a message Sayer sent to Otter’s chief of staff, David Hensley, in March saying a “change of chemistry” was needed on the commission and recommending that commissioners Mark Doerr and Will Naillon not be reappointed. Sayer, who serves as CEO of Premier Technologies in Blackfoot, was a proponent of the 2011 legislation that gave the commission authority to expand the auction tag program. He did not Please see AUCTION, Page B6
Resort details Lift prices: Full-day lift pass (ages 13+),
9 a.m.-4 p.m.: $45
Half-day pass (ages 13+),
12:30-4 p.m.: $38
Full day (ages 7-12): $33 Half day (ages 7-12): $29. Chil-
dren 6 and younger receive a free pass if with a parent. Seniors (ages 70+), full or half day: $25 Magic Carpet: $15 Day/night, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.: $50 Night, 4-9 p.m.: $17 Season passes: Single: $450 Second family member living at
same address: $410
Third family member: $370 Fourth and each one after: $330 Family members 7-12 years old:
$275 Directions: From Interstate 84, take exit 216 toward Declo. Turn right onto Idaho 77. After 17.6 miles, turn right onto Howell Canyon Road; follow that onto Forest Road 722. After a little less than a quarter-mile, Pomerelle Mountain Resort will be on the right. Online: Pomerelle.com, or search “Pomerelle Mountain” on Facebook. Resort office: 208-673-5599. 24-hour information: 208-6735555.
OUTDOORS
B6 | Thursday, November 10, 2016
Times-News
Decoy From B5
Garwood and senior conservation officer Clark Shackelford, both in uniform, would wait in the marked Fish and Game truck already out of sight up Barr Gulch Road. After fastening the decoys to pieces of rebar pounded into the ground, Head and Royse would watch from a blind close to Warm Springs Road. Hurd and a video camera would document the action from the blind high above, where Head had dug a bench in the dirt behind the dead branches. A faint glow suggested where sunrise would be, but the stars were still out. Switching off my flashlight to let my eyes adjust, I struggled up the steep scree behind Hurd.
‘Just drove right by’
At 8:31 a.m., Hurd interrupted his praise of the L.L.Bean product guarantee — the retailer replaces his boots every time the stitching wears out — to radio to his fellow officers that he could hear a vehicle approaching. He crouched at the front of the blind to track the vehicle with his video camera and narrated into the radio: “They drove past. They did not see the elk.” “That’s a good-looking set,” Royse said when he climbed up to our blind a few minutes later. “Yeah, it is,” Hurd said. “And they just drove right by it.” Telling Royse about a harvested mountain goat he checked recently, Hurd interrupted himself again: “Did that sound like a brake to you?” At another distant squeak, both men hunkered down. “Come on. Come on,” Royse murmured. It was the same truck — this time eastbound, heading down the drainage. And still it didn’t stop. “I have a feeling we might see that truck again,” Hurd said. Instead it turned up Barr Gulch Road, where Garwood and Shackelford would need to do something to explain the presence of a Fish and Game rig. I thought I heard a touch of glee in Garwood’s radio transmission. He’d go check out that suspicious green Ford.
VIRGINIA HUTCHINS, TIMES-NEWS
Idaho Department of Fish and Game officer Brandyn Hurd’s gear sits in a blind Nov. 5.
VIRGINIA HUTCHINS, TIMES-NEWS
Senior conservation officer Alex Head, right, carries an elk decoy back to an Idaho Department of Fish and Game truck after a Nov. 5 operation west of Ketchum.
VIRGINIA HUTCHINS, TIMES-NEWS
Above Warm Springs Road, senior conservation officer Brandyn Hurd checks the appearance of elk decoys set up on the opposite slope Nov. 5.
‘Game on’
It turned out the hunting party wasn’t oblivious after all. “You’ve got a guy walking up the road, with a rifle,” Royse whispered. “They saw those elk. Brandyn, you got him? Eleven o’clock.” Hurd had his camera on the pair of hunters as one knelt and raised his rifle. “There. Game on! He’s on the road,” Royse whispered. The hunter’s single, perfect shot cued the rest of the script: Head emerged from the bushes, Royse hurried down the scree and, moments later, Garwood and Shackelford pulled up with their citation book and copies of codes and regulations. The hunter held the correct tag for antlerless elk south of Warm Springs Road, so he was cited only for shooting from the road — a misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of $1,000 and six months in jail, plus a $50 payment to the state’s fund for artificially simulated animal replacement. “His boots were laying on top of tire tracks,” Royse said later. Royse’s Magic Valley officers run about six decoy operations a year, issuing citations during about half of them. Of the four so far this fall, Nov. 5 was the first to result in a citation. The shot bent a piece of re-
COURTESY OF BRANDYN HURD, IDAHO DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME
Using a reporter’s cellphone, senior conservation officer Brandyn Hurd photographs colleague Alex Head through his binoculars as Head resets a decoy elk that was shot. bar and damaged a bracket, but Head had a pocket full of screws. He pulled on rubber boots and crossed the creek to reset the cow elk decoy. I watched through binoculars as he restored its head and gave the neckline a few quick pats before hurrying away. Unable to reach his blind before another vehicle approached, Head found a makeshift spot to hide.
‘I think they knew’
“They just hit the brakes. Lee, we may have another shooter,” Hurd radioed. “They’ve stopped, shut the truck off. They’re out of the vehicle.” The passenger crouched in the grass down the road’s embankment, and the driver raised a rifle behind him, both looking through scopes at the elk. Royse prepared to jump out hollering
Auction From B5
immediately respond to a request for comment about the email, in which he also suggested that Idaho Department of Fish and Game Director Virgil Moore and an unnamed deputy director may need to be replaced. When their terms expired in June, Otter declined to reappoint Doerr and Naillon. He later appointed Jerry Meyers of North Fork, near Salmon, and Greg Cameron of Rupert to replace them. Thornton said the foundation has heard from several individuals concerned about Sayer’s tactics. In late October, Fred Trevey, Keith Carlson, Keith Stonebraker and Alex Irby — all former Fish and Game commissioners representing the Clearwater Region — sent a letter to Thornton expressing their displeasure at Sayer’s action and saying it appeared to violate the foundation’s values.
COURTESY OF IDAHO DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME
The subject of auction tags is one of the most controversial topics among Idaho hunters. The state currently issues only one such tag, for bighorn sheep. According to the foundation’s website, those values include honesty, integrity and respect for others. “We sincerely hope your chairman’s actions to politically influence the selection of Idaho Fish and Game commissioners, staffing of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and dictate the allocation of hunting tags is not indicative of the direction of the Wild Sheep Foundation,” they wrote. Carlson, of Lewiston, said he spoke with Thornton and
if it appeared the driver really would fire over the head of his passenger. But both got back in their truck. “They’re driving away,” Hurd told the team. “I think they knew it was a decoy.” The officers don’t expect their artificially simulated animals to fool everyone, and on this morning they didn’t even use the remote-controlled head movement. But the ruse should be sufficient for a hunter who’s in enough of a feverish hurry to bend the rules. Royse likes to tell about a hunter who once pulled up behind a marked Fish and Game truck — its blue light flashing while officers dealt with a previous decoy shooter’s violation — and shot the decoy anyway. This morning, a few more vehicles braked but drove on. And
was satisfied with the foundation’s response. “We were happy with the fact that the sheep foundation can be found harmless in this and that Sayer was off on his own.” Carlson said he and the three other former commissioners all oppose expansion of the auction tag program. Josh Kuntz, a Boise hunter, wrote to Thornton asking that the foundation publicly condemn Sayer. He said later he was disappointed in the response he described as “vanilla” and hoped the foundation would “do the right thing.” “That right thing should be publicly condemning Doug Sayer for circumventing existing wildlife management procedures and trying to unduly influence the Fish and Game Commission and basically trying to cram something down the throats of Idaho sportsmen without the sportsmen having their chance for input,” Kuntz said.
VIRGINIA HUTCHINS, TIMES-NEWS
A hunter’s shot Nov. 5 bent one of the pieces of rebar that hold this elk decoy in position. another hunter knelt and aimed but dropped his rifle. “That guy piled out of there like he was on fire,” Royse said. But maybe he had a spike elk tag instead of a cow tag. Maybe he heard an officer’s radio. Or maybe the decoys didn’t look real enough. Royse asked Hurd to check the elk with his binoculars again. “From my angle, I think I can see a piece of rebar,” Hurd reported. Sure enough: Reset after the shot, the cow elk now had a third front leg. “I wonder if they’ve been seeing that rebar.” Another trip across the creek for Head fixed the scene. Though no more bullet holes appeared in the decoys’ plywood
that morning, a woman with a camera captured what must be some lovely shots of a cow elk and her calf. And up in the blind on the scree, Royse had time for more reminiscence. When he was a new conservation officer in Buhl, he got a call from a hunter out watching a deer, convinced it was a Fish and Game decoy. I’m onto you, the hunter told Royse. Royse, wearing sweat pants and watching football on his couch, seized the moment. OK, just don’t tell anyone, he said to the hunter. “Game wardens can’t be everywhere,” Royse said at the end of his tale. “But we sure want people to think we are.”
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