Hot line plays major role in capturing game violators
By PERRY BACKUS of the Missoulian

An Arizona hunter who killed a six-point trophy bull elk near Helena on Halloween will pay an $8,870 fine and won’t be allowed to hunt, fish or trap in Montana for two years.

A group of men responsible for illegally killing bighorn sheep near Bonner last year are fined and their hunting privileges yanked.

A conversation on an airplane results in numerous felony charges filed against an outfitter in the Paradise Valley.

What do all of these have in common?

Every one of the cases was cracked with help from the public calling the state’s 1-800-TIP-MONT hot line.

On Halloween, Kyle McLaughlin, 23, formerly of Montana, shot the big bull elk on private property near the end of shooting light. He panicked and left the animal.

Angry citizens responded by calling the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ poaching hotline to share what they knew about the case.

“We couldn’t have accomplished this without the help of the public,” said Kevin Cook, an FWP game warden. “A lot of little information from a lot of people helped us break this case in five days.”

FWP Warden Captain Jeff Darrah has seen it before.

Last winter, state officials found a dead bighorn near Bonner, but didn’t have any leads on who shot and left the animal. A story in the Missoulian prompted a number of tips that eventually led not only to the people responsible for killing the bighorn but several others who’d also killed wild sheep and several deer illegally.

“Very seldom does someone poach an animal and no one else knows anything about it,” Darrah said. “We need people willing to step forward and help us make these cases.”

When it comes to investigating fish and game violations, the state depends heavily on the eyes and ears of sportsmen. There are only 70 game wardens to cover the 148,000 square miles that make up Montana.

“We’re really pretty limited as far as the amount of countryside we can cover,” Darrah said. “We get our information in a number of different ways. There’s good detective work; our contact with hunters; and sometimes people just stop in our offices and tell us what they’ve seen.

“We do depend on the hundreds of thousands of hunters who are out there every day to be our eyes and ears,” he said.

FWP’s west-central region is among the most active for TIP-MONT calls. Every year somewhere between 400 and 500 are logged in the region.

“We get good tips. We get bad tips and we get some tips that probably aren’t even tips,” Darrah said. “They’re all important to us. You never know which little piece of information will be vital in helping us to make a case.”

Any good investigation is like putting a puzzle together piece by piece.

“Someone might not think what they’ve seen or heard is all that important,” Darrah said. “But it might be that piece that we need to put the puzzle together.”

Kevin Clader is FWP’s TIP-MONT program manager in Helena. He’s a busy man this time of year.

“We’re getting a lot of calls right now,” Clader said. “We received 30 or 40 opening weekend. The phone has been ringing steadily here today.”

Over the course of a year, Clader said, the department will get upward of 1,400 tips. Most of them come during hunting season.

“About 50 percent of them are good, solid leads,” he said.

The state works with other state and federal agencies to make the program work. People can call to report violations they’ve seen on national forest and Bureau of Land Management lands. The Montana Highway Patrol dispatch center helps staff the phones during the late-night hours.

“People can now report OHV (off-highway vehicle) violations or vandalism they see on Forest Service lands,” Clader said. “We’ve become the resource-based Crimestoppers program.”

People who offer tips are eligible for a reward and they can remain anonymous.

Last year, the program paid out close to $15,000. The highest rewards paid by the program are $1,000 and “there’s a lot of $300, $400 and $500 rewards paid,” Clader said.

In some cases, other groups are also stepping forward to increase the rewards.

For instance, Darrah said the North American Wild Sheep Foundation often matches the rewards paid by FWP for cases involving bighorn sheep.

“Everyone has their own reasons for making the phone call,” Clader said. “Some feel like it’s their obligation as a sportsman to report those who aren’t being good sportsmen.”

Reporter Perry Backus can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or at pbackus@missoulian.com.