Warden Wire: Warden Blotter - Ashland, Oshkosh & Woodruff warden teams
August 15, 2012
The Warden Blotter features brief recaps of some recent cases handled by the Wisconsin conservation wardens. Today's edition features warden teams from Ashland, Oshkosh and Woodruff.
Ashland Team
- Warden Amie Egstad of Bayfield responded a report of a loose emu running on State Highway 13 south of Bayfield. After a short time, a landowner called stating the emu was in their yard approximately 3 miles north of the emu’s home farm. The owner’s daughter later dispatched the emu on state property due to the inability to corral/catch the animal.
- Warden Egstad was accompanied by a U.S. Border Patrol Agents on board her patrol boat one weekend on Lake Superior. While checking fishing licenses/boat registrations, several people were checked by the agent who were non-United States citizens and they did not have the proper paperwork on their person. Things all checked out in the end for the visitors, but they were warned by the agent about keeping their passports/work visas, and more with them while anywhere in the country.
- Warden Jill Schartner of Drummond attended two Lake Association Events in July (Lake Namakagon and Pickerel Lake), where she delivered a boating laws review. During the Namakagon Lake Association Annual Picnic, Warden Schartner and her husband ran a fishing tournament for the kids. They gave a new fishing pole to the top three places in the perch, bluegill and pumpkinseed categories.
- Warden John Krull of Superior arrested two who were breaking into vehicles along the Wisconsin Point Road. Previous vehicle break-ins were occurring in the Superior area prior to the arrests.
Oshkosh Team
- Warden Jason Higgins of Oshkosh assisted the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department and Occupational Safety and Health Administration with a crane removal from a crane accident on the HWY 41 Bridge/ Lake Butte des Morts. Work consisted of closing down channel and directing boating traffic thru the area while the removal was being completed.
- Warden Tom Truman of Winneconne and the Winneconne Police Department investigated an individual whose hunting, fishing, and trapping licenses had been revoked by another agency. The individual used another’s social security number without permission to create a new DNR customer identity number and purchased a fishing license. Felony charges of identity theft and several DNR violations have been referred to the District Attorney’s Office for charges.
- Warden Michael Disher of Chilton, investigated an individual who was keeping baby raccoons at his residence within city limits in Calumet County. The individual was warned by the local police department for the violation and was given the contact number of a licensed rehabilitator. Disher later discovered the individual still had the raccoons three weeks after he was contacted by the police department. Disher stopped at the residence and observed four raccoons within a fenced enclosure in the backyard. The raccoons were transferred to a licensed rehabilitator.
- Wardens Ben Nadolski of Waupun and Paul Nell of Horicon gave presentations to 65 kids at the Kids, Cops and Canines Summer Safety Day Camp at the Dodge County Fairgrounds near Beaver Dam. The wardens demonstrated boating safety, stressing proper fitting personal floatation devices, and ATV safety, stressing proper fitting helmets and riding correct sized ATVs.
- Warden Ryan Propson of Appleton investigated a complaint of the illegal possession of a live mallard duck. Propson found that the duck had been taken from the wild about a month earlier and was currently being kept as a house pet. The duck was given to a local wildlife rehabilitator and was expected to be released to the wild within a few weeks. As a reminder: it’s illegal to possess a wild animal for more than 24 hours for the purpose of transporting it to a wildlife rehabilitation facility.
- Warden Ryan Propson of Appleton worked with the state Division of Criminal Investigation, the Marinette County Sheriff Department and other conservation wardens to eradicate a marijuana grow on private property in Marinette County Wisconsin.
Woodruff Team
- Wardens Jim Jung of Rhinelander and Pat Novesky of Three Lakes assisted northeast district wardens and the Marinette County Sheriff’s Dept. with eradicating a 12,000-plant marijuana grow.
- Warden Novesky participated in a search-and-rescue effort for missing canoeists after a major storm. They were found, with their canoe, safe on the shoreline.
- Warden Kelly Crotty of Florence responded to a call of an osprey with a broken wing. Crotty worked with a rehabilitation center in Antigo in an effort to rehabilitate the raptor.
- Warden Thole and DNR Water Management Specialist Kyle McLaughlin investigated a grading complaint on the shore of White Sand Lake. The landowner had a permit to build a boat structure on the shoreline but he graded more than 10,000 square feet of topsoil on the bank without a permit. McLaughlin is working with the landowner to get site restored to prevent erosion into the lake.
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