2/27/2006

Litterbugs Risk Hunting, Fishing Privilege Suspension

Hunters and anglers have a special incentive to keep public areas clean.

JEFFERSON CITY-The 36-year-old Waynesville man undoubtedly would not have dumped a pile of used carpeting along the banks of Roubidoux Creek in Laughlin Park if he had known how much it would cost him. Besides paying $175 in fines and court costs for littering, he lost all his hunting and fishing privileges for a year.

His case was one of four in which Missourians lost hunting and fishing privileges in one month last year. At its December meeting, the Conservation Commission approved the year-long suspension of all hunting and fishing privileges for him and three others guilty of littering.

In another case, a 17-year old Clinton man dumped four bags of household garbage at the end of a dead-end road at Grand River Bottoms Wildlife Management Area on Truman Lake. The trash was not his. The rightful owner, whose identity was contained in the trash, helped Henry County Conservation Agent Kevin Dixon find the dumper. The litterer paid $155 in addition to losing his hunting and fishing privileges for a year.

Then there was the case of the 36-year-old military policeman from Fort Leonard Wood who spread bags of household trash over seven sites in Pulaski County.

"It was eight or nine bags every time," recalls Pulaski County Conservation Agent Aaron Pondrom. "Most of it was on private property adjacent to county roads, but he hit national forest land, too."

Pondrom, who also nabbed the Waynesville carpet dumper, finally tracked down the itinerant litterer and hauled him into court. It cost the rogue MP a $350 fine, $110 in court costs and the loss of all hunting and fishing privileges for a year. There is no telling what his commander had to say about the matter.

Not everyone who has their privileges suspended has dumped large quantities of trash. The Commission suspended a 21-year-old Oxly resident in part for deliberately leaving a soda bottle on the banks of the Current River at Doniphan. The man initially pleaded not guilty to the charge of littering, but in the face of detailed, eye-witness evidence gathered by the Ripley County Conservation Agent Darren Killian, the litterbug changed his tune and paid a $150 fine. The man had a track record of wildlife code violations that included hunting deer with an artificial light and fishing without a permit. The combination of offenses prompted his suspension.

The motives of litterers and dumpers vary widely. The Oxly man demonstrated what Killian called a "complete lack of respect for the outdoors and wildlife." For others, littering is simply easier or cheaper than not littering.

"Some people don't know where to take large quantities of trash," said Pondrom. "They know the trash man won't take big stuff like a whole house worth of carpeting, and instead of taking the time to find a place that will accept it, they dump it illegally on a conservation area. Others know what to do but don't want to pay to dispose of it properly."

Pondrom said dumpers who get away with their illegal behavior for awhile start to believe they will never get caught, but that is not true. "It can be easier than you might think to track them down," he said, declining to go into details.

Dixon said the actual owners of the trash sometimes are victims, too. They may be paying someone to haul away their trash and assuming it will be disposed of properly. They may even pay the hauler an extra fee to cover landfill charges. The hauler pockets both fees and dumps the trash illegally.

"Those cases usually are fairly easy to deal with," said Dixon. "The person whose trash it is doesn't want trouble, so they are glad to tell us who did the dumping."

For dumpers, the loss of Missouri hunting and fishing privileges is just the beginning. Because Missouri belongs to the Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact, suspension in the Show-Me State leads to loss of privileges in 21 other states, including Kansas, Iowa, North and South Dakota, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. For an elk or pheasant hunter or a serious trout angler, that is serious business.

-Jim Low-

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