An Arizona outfitter discovered poaching doesn’t pay when a joint team of investigators from Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service busted him for guiding and outfitting out-of-state clients on numerous big-game hunts in Colorado.
U.S. District Judge S. Kato Crews on July 31 sentenced Timothy Rawlings to 12 months in federal prison for violations of the Lacey Act and conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act, both federal felonies. His sentence also includes three years of supervised release following the prison term and $45,800 in restitution.
Rawlings paid his co-defendant, Howard Wayne Rodarmel, of Baca County, to provide unlicensed outfitting and guiding services to clients in Baca County. Rodarmel was previously sentenced to three years’ probation for a misdemeanor Lacey Act violation, fined $2,000 and billed $9,164 in restitution.
In a news release Tuesday, CPW called Rawlings’ violations “numerous and severe,” and said they included illegal outfitting, brokering of landowner vouchers, shooting from vehicles, chasing animals with vehicles and hunting in unlicensed and unpermitted lands.
Enacted in 1900 and amended in 1981 and 2008, the Lacey Act protects the nation’s wildlife resources by prohibiting the importation, exportation, transportation, sale, receipt, acquisition or purchase of any fish, wildlife or plant killed, possessed, transported or sold in violation of any law in the United States.
According to the plea agreement, at the time the crimes occurred, Rawlings — who owns and operates Old West Guides and Outfitters in Laveen, Arizona — provided outfitting, hunting and guiding services to paying clients for various big-game animals including deer, elk, mountain lions and bears.
A bull mule deer inside Rocky Mountain National Park, Friday, Oct. 7, 2022, near Estes Park. There were 1,347 known unlawful deer kills in Colorado between 2011 and 2020, according to CPW. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)But his company wasn’t licensed to provide these services in Colorado, nor did he register animals he or his clients killed, as required by Colorado regulations. The plea agreement also says during the investigation Rawlings unwittingly guided undercover agents on an illegal hunt and violated such regulations in their presence.
Colorado’s Landowner Preference Program gives private landowners the opportunity to obtain hunting licenses they can sell to the public for big game in recognition of the wildlife habitat they provide on their ranches.
For a landowner to qualify for the program, the land must meet several qualifications and only mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk and antelope can be hunted.
The ranch manager or outfitter for the landowner cannot complete the registration or applications for the landowner’s tags. But outfitters can advertise private land hunts, as evidenced on the website huntinfool.com, which showcases landowner tags for sale in Colorado ranging from $500 for a cow elk to $4,000 for a mule deer buck. CPW says a hunter may only redeem a voucher from a landowner for a license with a hunt code that matches the hunt code printed on the voucher. Hunt codes are used to designate the species, huntable area, season, sex of the animal and other important details about the hunt.
Critics of landowner preference programs say they create an unfair advantage for the wealthy and rob hunting opportunities for the general public, while advocates say the program incentivizes conservation and reduces public land pressure.
But none of that mattered in Rawlings’ case, which Ty Petersburg, CPW’s chief of law enforcement, called “a shining example of multiple agencies working together towards common law enforcement goals” in bringing down a prolific wildlife poacher.
“Operating without proper licensing undermines wildlife conservation efforts and the integrity of our state’s hunting regulations,” said Peter McNeilly, the chief federal law enforcement officer for Colorado. “We will continue to hold accountable those who seek to profit by skirting the laws that protect Colorado’s natural resources and ensure fair access for all.”
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