Have More Babies.
Cut More Trees
Four th irty in the m orning seems to
com e earlier w hen yo u 'v e been up
until eleven drinking brandy. "It
d o e s n 't take too long to get through a
night around here." w ild life
enforcem ent agent Mik»} Mercer said
as he emerged from his house into
the blue black coid of November
20th. Mike has w orked in w ildlife
enforcem ent for the state of
W ashington for 20 years On this day
I had planned to ride along on a
typica l day in the life of an old
governm ent trapper It was deer
season w ith in our destination, the
area south and w est of Mt St
Helens An unexpected phone call
from M ike 's sergeant tfie preceding
night brought new s of an elk poacher
sting operation that was under w ay
the next m orning. M ike's
p a rticipa tion w as param ount and I
was reluctant to go along at that
point. It sounded like no place for a
civilian to be if things got ugly. At
that point I realized that things
already were ugly and if I w ere to get
up at 4 :3 0 , blood flo w w ould snuff
my hang over by 9:3 0, w here as, if I
w ere to sleep in, I w ould be impaired
for a good share of the w aking day
We w ere to meet five other game
agents near Cougar at 5 30.
Having no tim e to pack a lunch, we
prepared a therm os of coffee W hile
still idling in the drive w ay, he tested
the blue lights and siren on his state
pickup. The length and intensity of
the siren blast seemed excessive to
me, but he explained that he w anted
to be sure and aw aken his long time
friend and neighbor, Mollie Hands, so
tha t she could get on w ith her
m orning yoga. We blasted north on
interstate 5 at top speed. W ith over
100 thousand miles, of logging road
abuse, the tru ck sailed co m forta bly
along past semi conscious travelers
and am phetam ine laden tru ck drivers.
A fte r the turn o ff to Cougar at
W oodland, the road narrow ed and
curved. The frost on the road was no
deterrent to M ike 's expeditiousness.
"Y ou m ust hit it high and dip dow n
deep into the apex of the curve to
m axim ize your v e lo c ity ," Mike
explained w hile dem onstrating the
theory. I can tell you that hot coffee
does not soon dissipate from the
cro tch of w oo l pants, and my
sw earing failed to alter his m ethod of
m aneuvering the vehicle.
W aiting just outside of Cougar were
agents, M ark Hart, Sergeant Tim
Ford, Bob "B u c k " Powell, Albert
S utton, and Tim Meyers. Mark had
put the operation together based on
an in fo rm a n t's testim ony and the
inve stigative endeavors of an
undercover w ild life agent. In the
headlights of one of the state trucks,
Tim outlined the situation to the
others. A cam p of heavy armed and
unlearned men had poached and
transported elk out of season. He
had vehicle descriptions and the
location of the cam p. There was
info rm a tion of a second cam p but no
location was available. He suspected
other num erous violations but had no
co n firm a tio n of them His goal was
to obtain a confession or find
evidence. The inform ant offered
w ords o f caution regarding the
encam pm ents arsenal Handguns,
huge "R am bo" like knives, shotguns,
body odor were prevalent. Tw o
w eeks w o rth of human excrem ent
encircled the cam p. I began to think
about the little cafe in Cougar that
served breakfast. "M aybe I should
hike into to w n ", I w hispered to Mike,
"This is no place for a nervous person
w ith shaky bow els. There's that nice
cafe w ith the 'th is business supported
by tim ber dollars' sign m the w in d o w ,
pick me up on your w ay o u t". At
that m om ent, Mike interrupted the
briefing to introduce me o fficia lly.
"By the w ay. I'll have Ron Logan
riding along today. He is w ith the
A ssociated Press out of Seattle and
he's w ritin g about the im pacts of
w ild life budgets taking a back seat to
m ost e ve rythin g else at the state
leve l." It is som etim es prudent to be
gullible at this hour in the m orning. It
appeared tha t the other agents
insta ntly believed M ike and fully
approved of my alleged cause and
presence
Pavement turned to dirt as we alt
headed up to w a rd the cam p Light
was just beginning and soon revealed
a heavy fro st. "W h a t happens m the
w oods is indica tive of the human
degradation we are experiencing
e v e ry w h e re ," M ike tells me. Years in
the w oods have turned him into a
cynic; not the e ffe c t one w ould
expect fro m a lifetim e of
w oodsm anship. He became serious,
"The w ilderness experience is virtually
gone in our part of the w orld There
is n 't a fo o t of ground that hasn't been
cut. dug. tram pled or otherw ise shit
on in this entire region. I've seen it
go from bad to w o rs e ". Indeed I
have spent a lot o f tim e in these
parts. The damage from the Mt St.
) ielei b eruption it but a mil ite
fra ctio n o f the d e stru ctio n caused
from logging. Deer and Elk are the
only animals tha t thrive in clear cuts
and "re prod" (a tim ber industry term
for reproduction or small trees). The
governm ent agencies w h ich oversee
forest land for the public trust have
done us all a horrible, irreversible
disservice This place is by and large
a biological dessert
To avoid startling the occupants, tw o
agents w e n t ahead into the cam p in a
single vehicle w hile the others w aited
just d o w n the road. Not more than
tw o m inutes had passed before the
message came over the radio, "Com e
on in (joys
n o p r o b le m
■’
lot of th e m ." The eyes of the camp
dw ellers were huge, their m ouths
hung open w ide as the four other
state tru cks rolled into cam p, blocking
all vehicle related exit opportunities
"This festering pustule of hum anity is
about to com e to a head," Mike
assured me as we stopped abruptly
A large W eyerhaeuser Company sign
next to the cam p had an elk hide
draped d isre sp e ctfu lly over it. The
sign w elcom ed visitors to the
"W eyerhaeuser Tree Farm" Stapled
to the sign w as a flyer o u tlining the
road closure plans for the fo llo w in g
year. Vandals and thieves were
blamed for the policy change The
signage merged w ith the cam p to
create a discouraging backdrop to the
hills of M arble M ountain.
The next tw o to throe hours were
filled w ith fru stra tio n . Every member
denied every allegation. Their stones
w ere w eak and uninform ative . Their
egos had been badly abused and their
heads hung d o w n w a rd throug ho ut the
m orning. Tw o of the men had
Sasquatch-like frames. Every move
of every hunter had to bo m onitored
The w eapons w ere gathered up and
inventoried As one entered the cab
of his tru ck he suddenly looked at me
and stopped "M a y I get a
c ig a re tte ? " he asked. I nodded and
moved closor to the open cab of
M ike 's tru ck. The elk carcass was
not in or around the cam p but one of
the susp e ct's trucks w as smeared
w ith elk hair and blood. This
m aterial, and the hide on the sign
w ere claim ed to have been from the
previous week w hen elk season was
open. These w ardens are not idiots.
Blood is no longer in its liquid form
after one week in the back of a
pickup tru ck A libis w ere obviously
not prepared. These men were used
to doing w ha t they w anted and
g e ttin g aw ay w ith it. They wore
given countless op p o rtu n itie s to com e
clean but they did not.
Sergeant Ford decided enough time
had been w asted. Three to w trucks
were dispatched from W oodland to
co n fiscate the suspect vehicles. The
agents felt they had enough to make
the case stick but had not given up
on finding the elk carcass. An
untagged deer carcass hanging
behind one o f the cam p trailers
provided more fuel for the fire
The sight o f five state game trucks,
three w reckers, and a large stink
infested elk cam p all nestled in tfie
deep co n fines o f this so-called
w ilderness m ust have provided great
c u rio s ity for the m any that passed by
"W e have a high presence here today,
but its p re tty dam ned concentrated"
Al S utto n told me as we w atched a
bew ildered hunter drive by The
suspects chain smoked and paced
around the frozen ground They did
not look each oth er in the eye and
appeared to be more angry then
concerned. W ith m ost of their
vehicles gone, the y no w faced the
challenge of g e ttin g home and later
appearing in c o u rt. The wardens
faced a d iffe re n t challenge They
w ere determ ined to find the other
cam p w here the elk carcass had
allegedly been transferred
In C ougar, w hile on our w .iy to the
Ape Caves area w here the phantom
cam p w as supposed to be. Mike
sw erved a b ru p tly into a small market.
"There are serious restrictions on our
tim e, and I w ill try to impose as many
of them as possible." he told me in a
joking tone As near «is we could tell,
the d o nuts w e bought at the market
expired in February. 1993 They
w ere dry but tasted just like the fresh
ones The grocer offered to make us
hot dogs in a m icro w ave oven "Just
take a second" he Claimed We w ere
not that brave
All five units no w spread out to check
every hunting cam p m the Ape Cave
area Wo suspected th.it the stranded
hunters w ould try to find a w .iy to the
phantom cam p before we did in an
e ffo rt to conceal w hatever m ight be
there W ith tensions tem porarily
eased, M ike returned to cynicism . "I
used to m aintain the glimmer that we
could make a difference, but we
catch only the id io ts ," he told me.
"There are heinous crimes around
every turn, you can figh t it but its like
w iping your bu tt w ith a hoop
The hours tfu it ensued were tedious
Running every plate on every trailer
and vehicle w e came across took time
and o fte n resulted in a reply such as
"license suspended" or "th a t license
is registered to a w ater vessel trailer
and should not be on a cam p tra ile r".
By virtu e o f the law enforcem ent
o ffice rs code of ethics, these
violatio n, regardless of flo w seem ingly
small or irrelevant, cannot be
overlooked Mik»; was right, there
really are crim es around every turn.
"The law s, right or w rong, are w hat
tfiey are until changed by the
processes in m otion. I am obligated
to enforce them so d o n ’ t interfere or
I'll c u ff you to tfie bed of this tru c k ,"
he barked after I suggested that ho
was w astin g time w ith frivolous
m atters w hile our carcass m ight be
finding its w ay into some nearby,
concealing shallow grave I realized
that the decisions w ere best left to
him. One such decision was w hen to
stop the truck to go to tfie bathroom .
"In this job, its alw ays been a m atter
of great co n ce rn ", fie explained at my
inquiry about toilet paper, "W henever
this happens I just c a n 't seem to get
far enough aw ay in the w oods to
avoid people. They invariably fiave
questions of you and w hen they see
your tru ck tfiey com e looking for you.
The sight of a w arden w alking out of
the w oods w ith a roll of docum ents is
one tha t seems to erode our
c re d ib ility . People d o n 't necessarily
believe that we are capable of
perform ing normal biological activitie s ‘
w hen w o rk in g ."
The clear cu ts on W eyerhaeuser land
near M arble M ountain are huge
#
Private land ow ner d o n ’ t use the U S ?
Forest Service "p a tc h w o rk " m ethod
w here small sw atches of trees are left
standing. Theres’ really no difference
betw een the tw o m ethods; over time
all of the trees are cut. One road
straddled a high ridge betw een these
m ethods of tree e xtra ctio n . Mike
stopped the truck and rolled do w n tfie
w in d o w . "Is n ’ t it beautiful? If it
w a s n 't for you bunny buggers we
could get at the rest of those sticks
over th e re ", fie said to me w hile
staring at a tin y stand of old trees
near a c liff. "Those trees a ren't doing
anyone any good in the ground. God
put 'em here for us to use D om inion
and all ya k n o w ." He likes to ridicule
the very philosophy fie em bodies.
Sarcasm is som etim es soothing.
"H ave more babies, cu t m ore tre e s,"
he m uttered as w e drove on.
We came in and out o f radio c o n ta c t
w ith the other w ardens There was
ch a tte r o f failed leads, w h a t areas
had been covered, and other
violatio ns encountered. A b o u t 2 :3 0 ,
“ B ingo" blurted out of the radio
speaker A Skamania C ou nty S heriff
de p u ty w ho had joined the search
found a cam p w ith a trailer registered
to one of the suspect hunters. A
closer look revealed tfie elk carcass
w e had been looking for. As
Sergeant Ford and M ark H art w e n t
back to cam p #1 to tra n s p o rt the
suspect, the rest of us m et d e p u ty
Craig M cCollorn at tfie p h a n to m
cam p There we found evidence of a
long season of carnage. Hides,
bones, hooves and ta tte re d flesh
w ere scattered about in the
surrounding w oo ds. Garbage
clutte red tfie cam p closer to the
trailer.
A trem endous am oun t of tim e and
resources w ere used to apprehend
just one w ild life villa in . That is the
w ay the system w o rks However
w ord of tfns d a y 's activities w ill
spread over tfie M arble M ountain
region like w ild fire . Its deterrent
value is unm easurable "Loss of
habitat is the real w ildlife v illa in ,".
Mike explains on the w ay home,
"Tim ber corporations, agriculture and
developm ent have destroyed more
w ild life than every hunter w ho has
ever w alked the e a rth ." I get the
im pression tfi.it w ild life agents
som etim es feel that tfiey are no thing
more than zoo keepers, m ending tfie
fences and m itigating the c o n flic ts
betw een caged animals on one side
and a sw elling c ro w d on the other I
can no w fully appreciate their
frustrations. Thirteen hour days do
not alw ays end as successfully as tfns
one.
M y questioning had forced M ike to
ponder some of tfie questions he
fears tfie m ost. The fu tu re of w ild life
around the w orld gets a little darker
every day, and fe w are more aw are of
it than he is. "T fie bright side is", he
tells me, "y o u can still go fishing or
hunting w hen tfie fish and animals are
gone M ost fishing and hu n tin g trips
result in no catch an yw ay, so w hat
w ould be the diffe ren ce? " As
som eone w ho spends m ost of his free
tim e in the same confines as w hen at
w ork, he has as m uch to lose as
anyone w ith this discouraging
prospect.
I w as encouraged by tfie am bition and
concern tha t I exam ined that day.
These w ild life agents understand not
only the m ultitudes of fish, plants,
and animals, but also tfie human and
social conditions that tfie y interact
w ith . They w ork against all odds.
Tfiey are like the cre w of a sinking
ship w orkin g feverishly to patch a
gapping hole. M ost of us have
already jumped ship, oth e rs w a it very
close to the life boat.
Ron Logan
4
VPPLRLEFTEOet JMIUMT iw ff