An eight-year hunting suspension starts this year for an Idaho man who killed a 6×6 bull in Box Elder County, Utah, in 2023. . It’s part of his punishment for hunting Utah elk with a resident license, despite not fulfilling the state’s strict residency requirements.
The Idaho man, whose identity has not been released by the agency, was sentenced for wanton destruction of protected wildlife.
“It is illegal to falsify your residency status when applying for a hunting/fishing license, and may carry severe consequences,” reads the Thursday Facebook post by the Utah DNR Division of Law Enforcement announcing the case’s conclusion.
In the comment section on the DLE’s post about the case, one commenter asked if the Idaho man’s wife would also be charged since she was along for the hunt. Facebook user Lydia Smith replied, in a since-edited comment:
“Everything was legal on that hunt, he just happened to switch his residency because he had just got married, which is what caused all this trouble,” Smith wrote Thursday evening. “So of course Utah hammered him for it and is making it seem like he intentionally poached an animal which isn’t the case. He would have never shot the elk if he knew his tag was forfeit due to residency changes, also why the hell would we post something that was intentionally poached? We have too much to lose to do something stupid like that. This was just an unfortunate situation and he should have looked into the regulations more before hand. But now he knows and is unfortunately paying for it in every way. Also Utah DNR specially doesn’t like him and they’re trying to run his life into the ground. And on an ending note, I wasn’t there when he killed the bull. I showed up afterwards. I also had no idea of the residency issue either. Literally everything was completely legal other than that, which we found out later.”
Smith is a Western hunting guide, artist, and influencer who is married to Sheldon Howe, an Idaho Falls resident and owner of Howe Hunting Company, which operates in Utah, Idaho, and Oregon. Howe could not immediately be reached for comment, but the person who answered the outfit’s phone Friday did not deny Howe’s connection to the case.
The DLE suggested the name of the individual would be redacted in a formal records request, and later declined to confirm or deny Howe’s involvement to Outdoor Life.
The Idaho resident was tasked with paying a $453 fine plus $12,000 in restitution. The court collects the fine while the restitution goes to the state’s Poaching Mitigation Fund. The eight-year hunting suspension not only applies to Utah, it applies to all 50 states through the Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact. It is not immediately apparent how this Utah conviction or the reciprocal hunting ban could affect someone who holds an outfitting license in Idaho or other states.
“We do sometimes see nonresidents obtain licenses. That is something our officers commonly look for to make sure everyone is taking game legally,” Utah Department of Natural Resources Division of Law Enforcement captain Chase Pili tells OL. “The public trusts us to protect resources and follow the rules.”
But in this case, it wasn’t an officer who initially exposed the poach. It was a tipster. The case opened in 2023 after state law enforcement received a tip about a non-resident hunting with a resident license in northern Utah.
“Tips are very important to our agency. This is a perfect example of how we build strong cases from a simple tip from a citizen,” Pili says. “We can never be everywhere at once. We build many cases off tips from the public.”
The state’s law enforcement division receives thousands of tips annually. The captain estimates there’s 385,000 acres to patrol per officer in Utah. Tips help increase eyes on the ground.
“People hunt in droves in certain areas of the state and it helps with prevention when others know not only are officers watching, but the public is watching,” Pili says. “This is a resource that not only we care about, the public cares about as well.”
By the time the illegal license case came together, the elk meat was presumably already eaten, but officers seized the antlers as evidence. The rack will most likely end up becoming a listed item during the state’s periodic poach and roadkill auction.
In a similar case made public in September, Brian Beckstead of Vernal, Utah illegally harvested a 6×6 bull elk while holding resident licenses for Utah and North Dakota at the same time. Investigators also seized that mount. He’s charged with wanton destruction of wildlife.
Read Next: Idaho Made It Much Harder to Get a Lifetime Hunting License After Nonresidents, Influencers Abuse It
This year Idaho made obtaining a lifetime hunting license harder after complaints of nonresidents, including influencers, moving briefly into the state to exploit the lifetime licensing system. The requirement changed from six months of residency to five years. Idaho now has the second-longest requirement of its kind in the country after Wyoming.
Natalie Krebs contributed reporting.