Nebraskaland

46 Nebraskaland • October 2024 MIXED BAG I've witnessed a few game violations that I haven't reported during my years in the fi eld. For whatever reason, the idea got stuck in my head that by the time a conservation offi cer could get there, the perpetrators would be gone, and what could they do then? Considering I work for the same joint that employs the folks who enforce the game laws, I should know better. They can do a lot. Last February, while ice fi shing with friends at one of the Salt Valley Lakes, we watched some hunters shoot geese after shooting hours had ended. I guess I should say we heard them shoot, since it was too dark to see much by the time it happened. This wasn't a case of their watch being a few minutes off . It was 20 minutes after legal shooting hours. They took a crack at another group 10 minutes later. I texted a conservation offi cer I had in the contacts in my phone. Soon after I did, another goose hunter, who had set up decoys on the ice on a diff erent part of the lake, and had them packed up when he should have, walked across the ice to discuss the same question we had. He was going to report the violation and wanted to know which vehicles in the lot were ours. Through the process of elimination, we determined the plate number of the perpetrators. Since I'd already contacted an offi cer, the hunter shared his contact info, and let me know he had a video of the violation. We packed up our gear and headed to the ramp. The violators arrived while we were loading gear into our trucks. When we asked them if they knew what shooting hours were, they said 30 minutes after sunset. That works for pheasants and deer, we told them, but not waterfowl. They played dumb, but with the gear they had, we knew these weren't rookies who had made an honest mistake. The next day, the conservation offi cer I had texted got back to me. I shared the other hunter's contact info. She passed on that information to fellow offi cer Curt Prohaska, who called me soon after and got my side of the story. By the end of the day, Prohaska had talked to the other witness, watched the video and contacted the violators at their homes. When presented with the evidence, they confessed, were cited for shooting game after hours and surrendered the goose they had shot. The moral of this story is: Don't be dumb. Not like the hunters who blatantly violated the law with people around to witness it. Or like me and think offi cers won't be able to catch up with the bad guys. "We're not always going to be at the places where the violation takes place," Prohaska said. "However, it's the public's eyes and ears that help us in our job." Prohaska said witnessing a violation can leave people asking, "Is this really happening?" and "Is there anything I can do about this?" "There is," he said. "Give us a call, and we'll take it from there." First, get every detail you can: the time and place, description of the violator, their license plate number, and, if you are able, photos or video. Nearly everyone carries a camera on their phone, and when confronted with that type of evidence, perpetrators are often quick to say, "You got me." A list of conservation offi cers can be found at OutdoorNebraska.gov (search "conservation offi cers"), in all of the hunting and fi shing guides and on page 6 of this magazine. There are good reasons for every game law on the books, be it size limits on walleyes, bag limits on pheasants or shooting hours. I can attest to the reasoning for the latter, as there were many times while I was hip-deep in a farm pond picking up goose decoys after a day's hunt and had geese almost land next to me. It's too easy. Not every case can be this easy for conservation offi cers, but they won't close any cases you don't report. REPORTING GAME VIOLATIONS CAN MAKE A CASE By Eric Fowler Whether they roost on open water or ice, Canada geese often return after sunset. The birds can be easy to decoy at this time, one of the reasons shooting hours end when the sun goes down. ERIC FOWLER, NEBRASKALAND

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