“So you get what we had here last week — which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it. And I don’t like it anymore than you men.”
–Cool Hand Luke
This post concerns the adversarial relationship created by wildlife and natural resource law enforcement with outdoor recreationists. While natural resource law enforcement (hereafter, shortened LE) should probably be concerned about protecting natural resources and tracking down those that damage them by flagrantly disregarding the law, instead LE are far more concerned about harassing law abiding citizens and writing easy tickets for trumped up offenses.
I am in the woods ALL THE TIME. I follow laws, rules, and regulations, except in the rare occurrence I make a simple mistake. I rarely run into LE. Yet, when I do, a majority of my interactions are negative. I’m not alone. While in the outdoors, you will almost never come in contact with LE without them questioning you and attempting to fine you for something. Can you imagine if every time you left your house and passed a police officer, you were immediately flagged down, questioned, searched, and ticketed for relatively stupid offenses? Welcome to the world of the outdoor recreationist.
Would you like an example? In February, I was in Ohio and visited Deer Creek State Park south of Columbus to run my dog. I was looking for a good spot, turned around in a boat launch parking lot, and was immediately pursued by an Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Officer. Before I entered the highway he turned on his lights and stopped me informing me that I was “suspicious” because I was from Michigan (yep), turned around by a boat launch (??), and “hauled ass” (at 25 mph) out of there! I could immediately see he was fishing for tickets so I gave him my license and registration and told him that I was pleading the 5th amendment. Being the constitutional scholar that he is, he threatened to charge me with a misdemeanor for turning around in a parking lot that said “boat launch only.” So I told him I had ODNR licenses and he informed me since I bought licenses and that this money goes to them (yes, he literally said that) he’d “let me off with a warning.”
I’m not the only suspicious law abiding Michigander to run afoul with the ODNR. I interacted with someone online who said that he once stopped his vehicle after dark because a large deer was in a field. While he was previously hunting, his bow and arrow was locked in the trunk and he was just watching the deer in the field with his headlights. He was then arrested for “shining deer” and he and his friends were fined for thousands (yes, thousands) of dollars each. This is exactly the type of bust LE loves: from the road. This prevents them from getting off their fat rears and finding someone actually poaching in the woods. Instead, they contrive offenses for those that they can capture from their heated vehicles.
Due to the penchant of LE to ticket people from the drivable roads, they are infatuated with ATVs. I buy a trail permit for my ATV every year. Just today, I took my ATV around my cabin for the first time and forgot to renew my $30 permit for that year. By some dark miracle, a forest service ranger from the Mio, Michigan office was on the road and stopped me and wrote me a $105 ticket. He could see I bought the permit every year. He knew I just forgot. But easy money is easy money, I guess. Of course, being in the area there will probably be some point that he could use my help. I guess he had his $105 instead, and the adversarial relationship with me that he has earned.
This wasn’t my first interaction with the Mio Forest Service district. Last year, one of the campers at their group campsites shot at my dog in the woods with a pocket pistol. I first contacted the Michigan DNR but they refused to deal with it because it was on federal land. (In general, the Michigan DNR refuses to deal with any public concern that doesn’t result in an easy ticket.) I called and made a complaint to the forest service (probably the same guy). I never heard back, probably because he did nothing about it. I assume he was too busy writing $105 dollar tickets to those who forgot to renew their permit to worry about people shooting at someone’s dog.
Of course, when he’s not writing tickets for permits, he has a slew of ridiculous ATV regulations to choose from. Don’t wear a helmet riding 15 mph; that’s a ticket. Ride two people on an ATV designed for one; well, that’s another ticket. Did you know that in Michigan whether you use a seatbelt or a helmet in an ATV depends on whether you have a windshield? What difference should that make? No one knows. Back in Lenawee county, where I grew up, it’s been reported that the county won’t even enforce atv tickets written by the DNR. I guess as elected officials they have decided it’s not worth the notoriety.
But I’d be remiss not to mention that sometimes a LE will strain himself and climb out of his vehicle and go into the woods, but only if he has a really, really good lead to make it worth his exertion. Some recreationists have so sufficiently drank the Kool-Aid of conservation that they still help LE to track down other recreationists, despite how they are treated by LE. As long as the LE is informed by someone who did their ground work for them, they will then stake-out the area just like on TV. No, just kidding, they’ll leave a trail camera in the area and go back to their truck or perhaps to the local bar. Notice that it doesn’t matter if they are leaving their trail camera on private property or don’t have a warrant. Due to the open fields doctrine, these LE are virtually immune from constitutional restrictions based on case law.
The disregard of LE for our constitutional rights has led to several lawsuits by the Institute for Justice (IJ), a civil rights law firm I donate to. For instance, the IJ has sued LE for stealing a man’s personal trail cam off his private property to take pictures off of it without a warrant and refusing to give it back to him after finding no evidence. (Could I make this up?) It has also sued LE for stalking around someone’s private property in camouflage because they thought someone might be hunting there and, if so, there might be a ticket to write. (I will admit that these specific LE seem much more ambitious than those in Michigan.) A few years ago, IJ sued LE for visiting a taxidermist unannounced during closed hours and then ticketed him thousands of dollars after he simply said that his shop wasn’t open for “inspection.” LE said nothing in response and didn’t even ask twice. He simply showed up several days later and ticketed him.
Unfortunately, modern LE serves no purpose beyond revenue generation. And that’s sad. I personally know of rampant poaching and disregard for the law. But as long as it occurs 100 yards from the nearest drivable road, they will never be caught. Many of these lawbreakers take an unfair advantage against lawful recreationists and, in a different world, lawful people would probably be happy to help LE catch them. Instead, LE views us as a target to harass for revenue. I’ve only met one LE that wanted it different. A rabbit hunter found one of my traps that, by regulation, needs to be half submerged in water. Well, I was a novice trapper at the time and the water level dropped in a few days and left my trap mostly dry. This LE saw it was a mistake and didn’t ticket me and instead tried to give me new trapping spots in exchange for information. But the reputation of his people had already been so soured in my mind, I didn’t give him much help. To paraphrase the captain from Cool Hand Luke, “if that’s the way they want it, well they get it.”