ODNR wants input from state’s waterfowl hunters

The Ohio Depart­ment of Nat­ural Resources ODNR is request­ing the state’s water­fowl hunters pro­vide input on the tim­ing of the 2013–2014 fall water­fowl hunt­ing sea­sons and the loca­tions where they pre­fer to hunt.

The ODNR Divi­sion of Wildlife biol­o­gists are seek­ing input from Ohio water­fowl hunters through an online sur­vey, so sea­son dates and oppor­tu­ni­ties can be matched to the pref­er­ences of as many hunters as pos­si­ble within fed­eral guidelines.

The ODNR Divi­sion of Wildlife sur­vey will be avail­able Jan. 22-Feb. 15 at wildohio.com. Hunters need to pro­vide their cus­tomer iden­ti­fi­ca­tion num­ber to par­tic­i­pate in the sur­vey. The cus­tomer iden­ti­fi­ca­tion num­ber is found on all Ohio hunt­ing and fish­ing licenses or at wildohio.com in the Wild Ohio Cus­tomer Cen­ter by click­ing on the Man­age Your Cus­tomer Account link.

Cus­tomers with­out Inter­net access can call 800-WILDLIFE (945‑3543) and take the sur­vey from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. dur­ing the dates when the sur­vey is open. Phone sur­vey par­tic­i­pants will also need their cus­tomer iden­ti­fi­ca­tion number.

Ohio Wet­lands Habi­tat Stamp cus­tomers who pur­chased a hunt­ing license and pro­vided a valid email address will receive an invi­ta­tion to take the sur­vey in an effort to increase aware­ness and par­tic­i­pa­tion. Stamp cus­tomers need to pro­vide a cus­tomer iden­ti­fi­ca­tion num­ber to par­tic­i­pate in the sur­vey. Ohio Wet­lands Habi­tat Stamp cus­tomers who wish to pro­vide an email address to receive future invi­ta­tions may sign up at wildohio.com in the Wild Ohio Cus­tomer Center.

The Ohio Wildlife Coun­cil will estab­lish 2013–2014 water­fowl sea­son dates in August after fed­eral guide­lines are pro­vided. Sim­i­lar infor­ma­tion was solicited by the ODNR Divi­sion of Wildlife from Ohio water­fowl hunters and used to set the 2012–2013 hunt­ing sea­son dates.

• Sports­men and women inter­ested in pur­su­ing coy­otes are encour­aged to attend a free, infor­ma­tional work­shop pro­vided by Divi­sion of Wildlife on Tues­day, Feb. 5, 2013 in Akron. Divi­sion of Wildlife biol­o­gists will cover very basic top­ics such as life his­tory, call­ing tech­niques (call types and setups), appro­pri­ate firearms and ammu­ni­tion, field sets, and scout­ing. The work­shop will be from 6:00pm to 9:00pm at Wildlife Dis­trict Three, 912 Portage Lakes Drive, Akron. Pre-registration is required as seat­ing is lim­ited. Call Ken Fry at (330) 245‑3030.

• Three indi­vid­u­als from New Albany received prison time, fines and hunt­ing license sus­pen­sions for oper­at­ing an ille­gal hunt­ing guide ser­vice dur­ing a two-year inves­ti­ga­tion, accord­ing to the Ohio Depart­ment of Nat­ural Resources (ODNR). The men were pros­e­cuted by Assis­tant Franklin County Pros­e­cu­tor Heather B. Robin­son and sen­tenced in the Franklin County Court of Com­mon Pleas by Judge Charles A. Schnei­der on Jan 16.

Scott J. Walsh of New Albany adver­tised him­self as a hunt­ing guide, sell­ing multi-day hunts rang­ing from $250 to $1,200. He lured peo­ple in by claim­ing to own and/or have per­mis­sion to hunt on 1,600 acres of prime deer hunt­ing prop­erty located in the New Albany area. In real­ity, Walsh owned no prop­erty and only had per­mis­sion to hunt on 15 acres of land. He pro­vided his clients with pho­tographs of tro­phy white-tailed deer he him­self had poached from the area.

In Jan­u­ary 2010, the ODNR Divi­sion of Wildlife was con­tacted by a con­cerned cit­i­zen advis­ing Walsh was engag­ing in ille­gal hunt­ing activ­i­ties. Inves­ti­ga­tors quickly rec­og­nized the name, as the ODNR Divi­sion of Wildlife had doc­u­mented more than 30 com­plaints from 1990 to 2010 per­tain­ing to Walsh vio­lat­ing Ohio’s wildlife laws.

The Ohio Divi­sion of Wildlife launched a two year inves­ti­ga­tion and dis­cov­ered that from the dates of Nov. 2007 through Jan. 2010, Walsh had guided at least 20 hunters from Ohio, Ver­mont, Texas, Michi­gan and New Hamp­shire on prop­er­ties owned by 40 dif­fer­ent fam­i­lies in the New Albany area. At least nine deer were taken dur­ing the two-year period.

Walsh assured his clients he had per­mis­sion to hunt on the var­i­ous prop­er­ties. It was later con­firmed Walsh did not have per­mis­sion to hunt and/or guide pay­ing clients on any of the prop­er­ties and made ver­bal threats to prop­erty own­ers when con­fronted. Walsh’s two accom­plices who assisted him were his son, Justin Walsh and Steve Clemons.

In Feb­ru­ary 2010 mul­ti­ple search war­rants were exe­cuted on the res­i­dences, vehi­cles and stor­age units of Scott Walsh and Steve Clemons. Numer­ous tro­phy white-tailed deer mounts were seized as well as Scott Walsh’s truck and ATV.

Mul­ti­ple felony and mis­de­meanor vio­la­tions were doc­u­mented dur­ing the inves­ti­ga­tion and included: dis­charg­ing a firearm near a premises, improper han­dling of a firearm in a motor vehi­cle, hav­ing weapons under dis­abil­ity, hunt­ing with­out per­mis­sion, fail­ing to wear hunter orange, no hunt­ing license, no deer per­mit, pos­ses­sion of drugs and jacklighting.

Any­one observ­ing or sus­pect­ing that wildlife vio­la­tions are occur­ring may report ille­gal activ­ity by call­ing the TIP hot­line toll free at 800-POACHER.

Until next time, Good Hunt­ing and Good Fishing!

Posted by Rob Hamilton on Jan 30 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.