Tony Overman/The Olympian
Eyes in the Woods volunteer Jeff Hostetter of Issaquah catalogs deer taken during the opening weekend of hunting season in the Vail Tree Farm south of Rainier. Volunteers also took DNA and brain stem samples to test for disease.

Tony Overman/The Olympian
Kyle Winton, president of Eyes in the Woods, checks a hunter's tag.

Eyes in the woods

Volunteers work to prevent abuse of hunting rights

N.S. NOKKENTVED, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published October 26, 2001

VAIL -- They are the people in orange vests at hunter check stations.

But Eyes in the Woods members do more than just hand out literature and collect hunter information for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Four years ago, Kyle A. Winton and fellow hunter Ray Crisp, both members of the Washington State Archery Association, grew concerned over resource abuses and decided they wanted to do something, Winton said.

"Too many people are part of the problem, not part of the solution," Winton said.

Fish and Wildlife regional wildlife manager Jack Smith worked with them to start a class on crime observation and reporting. And that has grown into other classes that teach group members to help with other projects -- especially gathering biological data, tracking and trapping for population and mortality studies, Winton said.

On the opening day of deer season this October, Eyes in the Woods volunteers at the Vail Tree Farm hunter check station helped check more than 900 hunters and 71 deer, and they helped collect 25 tissue samples to test for chronic wasting disease. The group has volunteers at Vail every weekend of the deer season, including the final weekend of the general buck season this Saturday and Sunday.

Group members learn to report poaching and other resource violations in a non-confrontational manner, Winton said. Their purpose is to deter vandals and poachers and educate fellow hunters and others who enjoy the outdoors.

"We're targeting the bad guys," he said, not the people who catch one fish over the limit one day.

Smith helped get the group rolling, making Region 6 a pilot region for the program.

"Yeah, it's a good thing," Smith said. "They've really been helpful."

In addition to having extra hands to help out at hunter check stations, Fish and Wildlife officials can muster a lot of volunteers with a few telephone calls. And they get work done without having to show the volunteers how to do everything -- they already are trained to help run a check station, and they have learned the basic skills to help gather data and to report violations.

But the real effect is hard to measure, Smith said. In the past two years, information provided by Eyes in the Woods volunteers has helped to make poaching cases.

Jeff Hostetter joined the group about a year ago.

"I like to help," he said, holding a clipboard and labeling a specimen bottle for a brainstem tissue sample at the Vail check station on opening day.

He also is involved in a big project the group has undertaken. Members will be putting up 27,000 signs, marking the boundaries of game management units across the state. The signs include area maps and Global Positioning System coordinates.

The signs are meant to help hunters avoid straying into the wrong areas.

"That's an honest mistake that happens to a lot of people," Winton said.

Eyes in the Woods also are working with Weyerhaeuser on a hunter cleanup day Dec. 1. to pick up garbage dumped.

Group members generally are people who care about natural resources and wildlife and who don't want to see hunting opportunities diminished by poachers, Winton said. Volunteers include hunters, fishers, birdwatchers and others who enjoy the outdoors.

About 1,000 people have attended Eyes in the Woods classes.

The idea for the group grew out of the awareness of the few numbers of enforcement officers in the field.

"The better the information they have, the better their response will be," Winton said.

N.S. Nokkentved covers the outdoors for The Olympian. He can be reached at 754-5445.

Getting involved

- Eyes in the Woods: Call 360-438-2915, check www.eyesinthewoods.org on the Web or send e-mail to: eyes@eyesinthewoods.org

- Jeep patrol: For information about the Thurston County Sheriff's Jeep Patrol, call 360-786-5535.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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