Something doesn't seem right here. Jim West, like him or not, is an intelligent, responsible, successful man. I just don't see him throwing it all away over some black bear hunting. There is FAR more to this story than we are reading about in that article IMO.
I've had some dealings with the AK State wildlife troopers that were less than stellar on several occasions. I don't trust them any further than I can throw them.
Two quick stories about my personal dealings with the vaunted AK Wild Life Troopers.
I flew a couple of buddies into a base camp for a sheep hunt. They were on public open non restricted land. On the agreed to day I flew in to pick them up. I was surprised to see at their camp a State Trooper Super Cub and another privately owned Cub parked at my buddies base camp.
Turns out that the guy with the other cub was a guide who was guiding in the "area". Him and Mr. Trooper were buddies. Mr. Guide was pissed that my guys had killed a sheep in what he considered "his" area. So he called his buddy Mr. Trooper, Mr. Trooper flies over the kill site and decides from the air that my buddies had left too much meat on the carcass and were threatening them with a wanton waste violation. So my buddies who were AK Smoke Jumpers and in excellent condition offered to take Mr. Trooper the 8 miles and several thousand vertical feet back to the kill site to prove to him that they had stripped every possible ounce of edible meat from the sheep. Mr. Trooper was having none of it. So my buddies agreed to RUN back up to the kill sight and pick up the bare spine, some stripped ribs and and assorted other boned out skeletal pieces that had been left for weight purposes. They made the round trip in under 10 hours returning with every other body part that had been left in the field. The trooper had never expected in a million years that anybody who just completed a grueling 8 days in the high country would have the ability to return to the kill site and prove beyond a doubt that they were not guilty of his trumped up charges, and he was wrong. My smoke jumper buddies did just that and in blistering time. Mr. Trooper and the dirt bag guide were forced when presented with the evidence to return to town with their tails tucked. No citation was issued. The whole deal was a nothing more than harassment and the attempt to scare people away from their rightful public land hunting area and it was done in collusion with the guide.
The second one happened in Kotzebue Ak in 1992. At the time I was flying bush in the area and had a friend who was a local aircraft mechanic. The mechanic was keen to hunt but didn't have any hunting experience to speak of. One day we were in the local restaurant and some dude overhears my buddy talking about hunting and comes over pulls up chair and starts bragging on his hunting creds in the area. Now mind you I had been there for over a year it's a small village of about 3,500 folks at the time and I'd never seen or heard of this dude before strange!
After lunch my buddy was all excited as he and the dude had agreed on a griz hunt leaving later that very afternoon. Something about the whole deal just ain't right in my mind as one, I've got no knowledge of this dude, two the price is WAY to cheap, three his stories and times and places aren't jiving with me. So we pack my buddy up and take him to the local float strip where we meet up with the dude and the other "guide" who is a native dude and a guy I know and DEFINITELY NOT somebody who should be trusted. He's a local dirt bag, drunk petty criminal and had been busted but never convicted of several game violations and illegal guiding on native lands and in the local area.
I play concerned friend and ask the main dude to show me on a map where they are hunting when they'll be back ETC for safety sake. I'm told in no uncertain terms to mind my business and leave. That ain't going to happen, so I inform the dude of such and we start to leave. Now dirt bag native dude jumps in and threatens to kick my butt. That ain't going to happen times 2. After native dude decides that he's bit off more than he can chew and starts to calm down he agrees to show me the general area that they will be hunting in. He points to a gravel bar on the map, only problem is I happen to KNOW that the gravel bar is in NANA controlled and owned native lands. Long story short there was no way the hunt was on the up and up. We depart back to my buddies house. A short time latter dirt bag native, now with liquid fortification on his side shows up wanting to fight both of us. We call the po po who shows up and in the course of ensuing BS that follows the local police officer lets slip that the other dude who tried to get my buddy to hunt on illegal land with a non licensed guide for money was actually an off duty (undercover) Trooper. Go figure. They were trying to sting my totally innocent non suspecting, guilty of nothing more than innocence and ignorance into breaking the law. At least that was the only thing that made sense we could never prove it.
You need to to be very very careful when hunting or booking a hunt in AK. The Wildlife Troopers at least some of them ARE NOT there to help you. I will say in their defense however that I've had some very good experiences with Wildlife Troopers as well. Just be careful, know the laws and if it sounds to good to be true, especially in Alaskan hunting it most definitely is! There are a shoot pile of crooked outfitters in the state too BTW and you need to REALLY careful anytime Indian lands are involved. Just because you have permission and have paid a trespass or guiding fee does NOT mean that you have paid or have permission from the right people. That's been my experience for what it's worth.
