Behind the Badge - The Next Hill
The Next Hill
District Game Warden Kylor Johnston
A game warden’s schedule is rarely decided before the day begins.
Sure, certain dates of the year you can expect just about every warden to be out from before sunrise to after sunset, but there are many days where it is not as busy or as straight forward.
With hours that are not set in stone you may work in the morning and not find many hunters or anglers out and decide to go home for a while and head back out later if you think there may be more activity or get a call.
During this past deer season, I was working on a Sunday and the number of hunters I had located was low and as the day progressed the miles of driving to find a hunter were racking up.
I had plenty of hours in, as is typical during November, and was thinking maybe I should just head home and watch some football.
I mean at this point I had already thought I was not going to find anymore hunters until the evening hunt if anyone was going to come back out.
I pulled off on an approach on the county road and sat there and talked with my neighboring warden wondering if he was going to keep driving around or just call it a day too as he wasn’t finding anyone out.
We ended up reminding each other that deer season only has three weekends which are the peaks of activity, and we should just stay out and you never know what you may find.
The reminder of that last sentence came true about 20 seconds after I hung up and crested the next hill on the county road.
It was at that moment I located a truck in a pasture and could immediately see two men without any blaze orange cutting a deer next to the truck.
Unlike a truck in a crop stubble field this one was in the farthest corner of the pasture, and I had to figure out how I would be able to get to them.
Eventually I found the path they had used to get back there and upon arrival I immediately recognized the hunter.
The next thing I observed was the deer had been field dressed, the truck well off trail and no tag in the ear of the deer.
As the investigation unfolded, I soon realized that this was more than an excited hunter who forgot to put his tag on the deer immediately.
This was a blatant poaching case.
The tag the hunter “intended’ on using for the deer was a tag from a different unit and for a different species.
After documenting and investigating the case I ended up seizing the deer, the rifle and the tag from the hunter.
A seizure receipt was issued along with quite a few citations.
When I drove away, I was glad that even after going a couple hours of not seeing any hunters I kept working as it was yet another reminder of you never no what might be over the next hill.
With a job that has you constantly looking around not necessarily for the next hunter or angler, but undoubtedly the next poacher, and when you find one over the next hill that is what keeps you motivated to protect, enhance, and promote the safe and wise use of our natural resources.
The poacher was found guilty in court and ordered to pay $1,050 in fines/fees, forfeiture of his rifle and a three-year suspension of hunting and fishing privileges (not only in North Dakota but in 44 other states).
This story reminds game wardens that we never know what is over the next hill, but hopefully reminds poachers that the game warden may be over the next hill, or a person with a phone that may just call the game warden.