Poaching: We NEED Harsher Penalties!

A pair of recent poaching cases have once again made me question whether the penalties for egregious and premeditated poaching are strict enough. I’ve held the opinion for a long time that suspended hunting privileges, slight monetary fines and gear confiscation don’t go far enough and these cases prove my point. 

First up is the case of serial poacher Travis Alexander Palmer of Oregon. Palmer received lifetime hunting bans in both 2015 and 2024 for his guilt in continuous poaching before being convicted, again, for a string of poaching offenses. 

“Palmer is a habitual offender who does not care what restrictions are placed on him,” DA Jim Carpenter told the RV Times. “He is going to trophy-hunt or fish as he wishes without regard for the law or other people.” (Natalie Krebs, Outdoor Life, 2025)

That, folks, is the issue at hand… deterrents as they are, do not work for serial poachers like Palmer. The cost for poaching, especially premeditated, serial poaching is simply not high enough. There needs to be a bigger hammer applied to folks like Palmer. 

Lifetime hunting bans don’t work, these criminals have already displayed a complete and utter lack of regard for the law and as we see in a more recent case here in Wyoming involving Kenny Craig of Alabama, nonresident poachers simply duck out and only face punishment IF they return and are apprehended. 

Craig was convicted in 1998 (there is no statute of limitations on wildlife violations) of taking a deer without a license and purchasing a resident license before meeting the requirements for establishing Wyoming residency. To avoid paying his fines he simply left the state and was only recently held accountable thanks to being arrested during a traffic stop in Crook County, Wyoming. Craig was ordered to pay $1400 dollars in total and his hunting and fishing privileges have been revoked as well. (Source: WGFD)

So back to the issue of harsher penalties. Money and incarceration come to mind but there are issues with both. 

I do think that fines must be increased to hit poachers in the pocketbook. However, with this must come the State’s ability to garnish poacher’s wages if and when fines are not paid. That is also assuming they are gainfully employed. If not, and poachers are subsisting off the largess of community aid their benefits need to be rescinded and meaningful community service, via strictly supervised probation should be implemented. The other option, which could be applied in concert with fines and community service, is incarceration. Doing crime equals doing time.  

The issue with all of these punitive measures lies in the burden to taxpayers. Supervised community service and incarceration both come at a large cost to taxpayers who may not value wildlife infractions as dearly as the hunting and fishing communities. The only real way to find out is for judges to hand down harsher sentences and monitor public feedback… or, do so via legislation which would be open to a public vote. 

As much as I’d like to see stiffer punishments for serial and premeditated poaching it is not as easy as it may seem. Until these cases are taken as seriously as say, drunk driving or grand larceny (since these individuals are stealing resources from the public trust), there will likely be zero change in either the behavior or the penalties and that my friends, is a crying shame. 

What’s your take? As always I welcome your comments. 

The Secrets Of How To Hunt Out West! | Eastmans’ Journal Podcast Ep #68

In episode #68 of the Eastmans’ Journal Podcast, host Ike Eastman interviews Scott Reekers, the lead of Hunting Research here at Eastmans’. They discuss the current state of Western hunting, addressing issues such as drought conditions, draw odds, and the legislative agendas in states like Colorado.

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