More than 120 people packed a Municipal Building room Thursday night to look for ways to stop wildlife poaching.
The meeting came in the wake of a poaching incident that claimed the life of a 7-by-9 point bull that YMCA of the Rockies staff called "Samson," but the poaching problem in the Estes Valley is bigger than Samson, Colorado Division of Wildlife area manager Rick Spowart said.
"Being probably the most known elk in the Estes Valley, it drew a lot of attention to the problem," he said of the Nov. 11 incident in which a man from Lakewood stalked the animal on the YMCA grounds and killed him with a crossbow.
"That elk has brought a lot of joy to a lot of people," Spowart said.
"I've had wildlife photographers call me from across the country to see if Samson was back at the Y.' "
The racks, or antlers, that an animal like Samson has attract hunters looking for a trophy-quality head and they also attract poachers who are willing to break laws to obtain the head of such an animal, Spowart said.
An individual who is a "head-hunter type," often seeks out such animals to stroke their own egos or to fatten their pocketbooks, Spowart noted.
"That sort of activity is what I find the most distasteful."
The protection that animals receive in the Estes Valley within Rocky Mountain National Park and the Estes Park town limits, both places where hunting is prohibited entirely gives the animals a better chance to mature and develop the kind of racks that attract trophy seekers, he noted.
Yellowstone National Park, with the same kind of protection for the animals, has also been subject to poaching incidents that made national headlines recently.
Poachers are not hunters
Spowart said he issues citations for two different kinds of violations.
Sometimes legitimate hunters make mistakes and hunt where, when or an animal they shouldn't, and they can be ticketed.
Poaching is different, when the marksmen go out with the intention of breaking the law.
"There is a big difference between a law-abiding hunter and one who does a criminal act," Spowart said.
Legal hunting is used as a population management tool, he said.
Poachers should not be called hunters, Spowart said.
He noted someone recently compared the misnomer to that of a driver who slams his car into a bus full of children. "You don't call him a motorist."
"These poachers are giving us hunters a bad name," one man in the audience agreed.
Can poaching be prevented?
Spowart said about a half dozen poaching incidents per year is a typical rate in the Estes Valley.
But there were that many last week alone when Samson was shot by the poacher at the YMCA of the Rockies/Estes Park Center, and three cow elk were shot by an illegal hunter in Grey Fox Estates on Nov. 11.
On Nov. 14, copycat killers targeted two deer, wounding one in Koral Heights and killing one in Carriage Hills.
Every winter there are some trophy-class animals poached, Spowart said.
"I've caught some of these people and others have escaped."
Some are bold enough to shoot the animals from out of their vehicle's window, he said.
Others shoot in between houses, potentially endangering the residents.
Many people wanted to know what can be done to prevent poaching incidents from happening again.
"I wish I knew," Spowart said.
One man asked if he could volunteer to help with patrols.
Spowart said the DOW does extra patrols when it learns of rumors that there are poachers in the area.
"If you want to patrol as a citizen more power to you," he said.
Spowart is in charge of covering a 600-square-mile area, and he gets occasional help from the DOW office in Loveland.
The area ranges from the Boulder County line on the south to the Continental Divide on the west to the Big Thompson drainage on the north to the Narrows on the east.
He said there will always be an element out there who, no matter how high the fines for it, will try to poach.
Spowart said he told the suspect in Samson's killing that he had no idea of the extent of what he had done to the community, because so many people are outraged at the killing.
"They want this guy prosecuted to the full extent of the law, and then some," he noted.
Discouraging at the DA's office
As of Thursday night, no charges had been filled against the Lakewood man suspected of killing Samson, but Ricky Campbell, 39, of Loveland, was facing seven charges for illegally killing the three cow elk on Nov. 11.
"I basically charged that individual with everything I could charge him with," Spowart said.
The charges are just misdemeanors, but the fines are steep, he said.
If found guilty, Campbell could face fines of more than $15,000.
Campbell will appear in Larimer County Court in Loveland on Nov. 30.
Asked if Larimer County prosecutes wildlife crimes to the full extent of the law, Spowart said such charges are the call of the Larimer County District Attorney's Office, with which wildlife officials met earlier Thursday to discuss charges against the Lakewood man.
"In the case of Samson, they pretty much told us to go do some more work," he said.
"You have witnesses, you have the animal, you have the truck. What is missing?" one woman in the audience asked.
Spowart said he shared that frustration.
He needed to make a case that shows the individual abandoned the animal or took the trophy portion, he said.
Although the killer did abandon the animal, he did not return to take the head, after the incident was reported almost as it was occurring and DOW and law enforcement personnel arrived on the scene.
"He didn't have time (to take the head and rack)," one audience member noted.
"That would be my assessment," Spowart said.
Discouraging in court
Spowart said he has not had the best of luck in dealing with the DA's office on other cases.
Many times the DA will suggest a plea bargain, and, knowing how busy the DA's office is, Spowart said it seems reasonable to accept many of those plea bargains.
The purpose of wildlife enforcement is to correct a situation and make sure it does not happen again, so when he feels comfortable that a situation will be corrected through a plea bargain, he has no problem accepting it.
But sometimes a situation he thinks was corrected through the legal system is not, Spowart said.
"It's been discouraging."
Another problem has occurred at the courthouse.
Spowart said the judge many of his cases come before, Judge Don Nelson, has told him he thinks the DOW's fines are too high.
One man in the audience said he was not happy with the fines either. "They should be double," he said.
The fines are set by state law, but the judge can suspend the fines, and sometimes he does, Spowart said.
Low fines may not do much to discourage poachers, but if people found guilty of charges like those Campbell faces were to have to pay the maximum fines, it could be a deterrent, he said.
"For most people that kind of money is still a lot of money."
Spowart said he thinks the fines would be sufficient deterrents if they were fully assessed.
"What I'd like to see in the future is when they go to court and they're found guilty, the fine is assessed."
Jim Boyd, who had grown fond of Samson after becoming familiar with him at the YMCA of the Rockies, encouraged people at the meeting to sign and circulate petitions asking the county "to prosecute poachers as the criminals that they are, and to pursue maximum sentences for those who are convicted."
"Write to your representative, your senator, write to the judge, write to the DA. Express your outrage," he encouraged the crowd.
DA and judge up for election
He advised that people unhappy with the way the DOW laws are enforced should contact District Attorney Stu VanMeveren or Judge Nelson, both of whom are elected by the citizens.
"Those people will listen to public input," he said.
Both VanMeveren and Nelson were last elected in 1992, VanMeveren on a vote of 57,902 for him to 34,351 for his Democratic opponent, and Nelson on a vote of 54,683 for his reappointment to 20,859 against it.
If they choose to run again, they will face re-election in 1996.
Spowart said that public outcry to the judge and DA could have particular impact in an election year.
In counties with urban communities there are often more pressing problems than wildlife offenses, he noted.
Other counties take wildlife crime more seriously than Larimer County does, but that could change with public outcry, he said.
"Wouldn't you think the message is getting out that people take wildlife crime seriously?"
Class action suit?
One man in the audience had a novel suggestion for raising the legal stakes.
He asked if the citizens of Colorado could file a class action lawsuit against the poacher, noting that wildlife is considered the property of the state.
"I'm no attorney, but it may be possible," DOW representative Carl Leonard said.
"The idea makes sense to me, but I don't know of any cases," Spowart said.
The DOW occasionally files civil suits itself.
A woman in the audience suggested that shaming poachers by widely publishing their names could help prevent future cases.
Many in the audience were unhappy that the killer of Samson had not yet been charged and his name was not a part of the public record as of Thursday night.
A bad reputation
One man asked if Estes Park is getting a reputation as an easy mark for poachers.
Spowart said it has a reputation for trophy-class animals.
"The Estes Valley is pretty much a refuge, as well as Rocky Mountain National Park next door," he said.
He noted one individual prosecuted for wildlife poaching elsewhere was caught with a videotape of animals in the Estes Valley in his possession.
Spowart said he thinks the area's reputation also led to Samson's death.
"I think the word was out there was a trophy class animal at the YMCA."
Asked if the closure of RMNP during the federal budget crisis last week put the wildlife in the Park in greater danger, Spowart replied, "I would think so."
He could not help out with Park patrols during the closure.
"I don't have jurisdiction in the Park. I don't patrol the Park. I don't work in the Park as a law enforcement officer."
One man said some area residents could share in the blame for Samson's death.
"I feel some blame has to go to people who are feeding them and making them pets," he said.
"You're right, it's making the animals a lot more vulnerable," Spowart said.
In addition to making wildlife human habituated, feeding causing some the animals to cross highways to reach food sources, and many vehicle-wildlife accidents result, he said.
"As far as I know, Samson wasn't intentionally fed. He knocked off a lot of birdfeeders."
Spowart said that he tries to enforce regulations against feeding wildlife, but many area residents refuse to comply and tell him so in no uncertain terms.
"I've been called a Nazi," he said.
"People have been feeding deer and elk in Estes Park for a long, long time."
It's now illegal and carries a $68 fine.