December 2, 2022 |
The day-to-day grind of a real-life game warden in Carbon County may not be as wild and as and as full of international intrigue as the fictional Joe Pickett’s in a C.J. Box novel, but Levi Wood still has plenty to investigate.
With the 2022 season drawing to a close, Bigfoot 99 spoke with Saratoga’s game warden, Levi Wood, about hunting-related crimes. Wood said nothing out of the ordinary happened this year.
Pictured above: Wyoming Game and Fish Saratoga Game Warden Levi Wood. Photo courtesy WGFD.
No matter how diligent Game and Fish agents are, there will always be violations. Wood explained some of the most common complaints he responds to.
As reported by Bigfoot 99, a local man was charged with intentionally taking a trophy out of season. Sources say the animal was brought down with a rifle during archery season on private land. The case is in the plea-bargain stage and the outcome is yet to be determined.
Carbon County is nearly 8,000 square miles. With so much area to cover, to can take a long time for a game warden to arrive at a crime scene. While he doesn’t cover the entire county, Wood explained how his large jurisdiction makes his job more challenging.
Wyoming Game and Fish law enforcement agents patrol the area. Sometimes they come across a crime as it is happening, but Wood said most of the time he relies on people reporting what they see.
Wood said to all suspicious activity should be reported to his department. He recommends not confronting a suspected violator. That’s his job. The game warden said the more detail you can provide the better.
Wood said poachers and trespassers aren’t the only people he meets in the forest. The famous author, C.J. Box, has accompanied him on occasion. Wood said Box wants to make his characters as authentic as possible.
With so much ground to cover, Wyoming Game and Fish agents rely on the public to report crimes they witness. Time is of the essence, so Wood asks that people provide as many physical details as possible when they call his department. The Wyoming Game and Fish Stop Poaching Hotline can be reached at 1-877-943-3847.
Wood said none of his stories have made it into a Joe Pickett novel, although ticketing a wealthy landowner who could afford a big game hunt anywhere in the world but chose to risk taking down a trophy deer with a rifle during bow season is worthy of a chapter, or at least a paragraph or two.
