Three Sentenced For Poaching Moose In Park

Three men pled guilty and were sentenced for possession of unlawfully taken moose in federal district court in Anchorage on December 15th. The case began in October 2007 when the NPS received an anonymous tip that three men had sport-hunted in the park and had killed two bull moose. Investigators learned that the three hunters met in Yakutat to go moose hunting and hired a local air taxi pilot to fly them to one of two locations. The first was Icy Bay, which is outside and west of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve; the second location was about half way to Icy Bay, which is within the national park. The men obtained their hunting permits, but were unable to get maps of their hunting area.  They did not contact the NPS prior to the hunt regarding hunt locations. As they flew towards Icy Bay, the winds “got squirrely” and they observed several moose on the ground and decided to hunt there. They did not know the moose were inside the national park, which is closed to sport hunting. Wrangell-St. Elias National Preserve, where it would have been legal for them to hunt moose during that time, was one and two miles from each of the kill sites on the other side of a prominent stream. The three hunters, one from Washington state and two from the Anchorage area, were each sentenced to pay a $500 to $1,000 fine and $1,000 in restitution to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park for wildlife protection and ordered to forfeit the meat and antlers. Those involved in solving the crime were special agents from Alaska and Olympic National Park along with park rangers from Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Glacier Bay National Park.