CPW Conducts Poacher Check Point in Lamar

Navigation Barriers Direct Traffic to Officials

The eastbound Port of Entry along Highway 50 in Lamar was the site of a poacher checkpoint in Lamar this past Wednesday, as approximately two dozen Department of Parks and Wildlife and law enforcement officials checked vehicles for hunting violations.

Orange cones were set up ahead of the Entry and two officials conducted a brief interview of drivers before either allowing them to continue their journey or pull over for a quick question and answer session and a check of any hunting licenses. Semis or commercial trucks and motorcycles were basically exempt from any action, but pick-ups and SUV garnered a little more attention.

Parks and Wildlife Officials Waiting to Check Vehicles

“It’s a biological check station, but we’re going to ask people if they’ve been hunting or fishing,” said Abbie Walls, Public Information Officer for the Southeast Region with Colorado Parks and Wildlife. The station was put into operation at 10am and would run through most of the day and into the evening, concluding on Thursday.

“We’ll ask a few questions, ask them if they’ve been out in the field, check some licenses, answer any questions they may have and look for any law violations,” she explained. She said it didn’t matter if they were in state or out of state, the CPW’s interest was in people who had been hunting. “If they say they have been hunting or fishing, we’ll stop them to follow up, but if they say no, then we’ll just let them go through.”

She said the big and small game season in Colorado has just gotten underway. Wall described a ‘poach’ scenario as, “if they hunted the wrong sex, if they had a license for a female and shot a male, if they hunted in the wrong game management area they didn’t have a tag for.  It’s an education thing as well, as we’re looking to educate them, not just look for violations.”

She said any part of the state could have a check point set up, but right now the only one is in Lamar for the southeast Colorado area. “We do these periodically because we take poaching seriously.  There are studies that show for every animal legally harvested in Colorado, another one has been poached,” Wall said.  She added that a report detailing the number of stops and violations, if any would be reported shortly after the checkpoint operation concluded.

By Russ Baldwin