WEST FARGO – Even if you’ve never been a hunter, you’re likely familiar with the term poaching. Poaching is theft, plain and simple. It’s the illegal taking or killing of fish and wildlife. It’s stealing from legal hunters and anglers and trampling on the public trust. It might be shooting before legal hours, fishing without a license or shooting an extra deer, duck or pheasant.

The first few issues of poaching I witnessed in my time as a game warden are etched in memory. Coming around the corner and seeing a man in a creek spearing pike running upstream. Watching a hunting party shoot a deer and leave it until another hunter with the proper tag arrived.

Both incidents were blatant violations and not excused by “it was an accident” or “ I didn’t know.”

Some give a shade of acceptance to

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