Oregon State Police is expanding its conservation K-9 team which investigates poaching incidents. One of those dogs is now based in Central Oregon.
Trooper Shae Ross and his K-9 partner Scout have already been working out of Bend since December. Scout is an 18-month-old black Labrador Retriever who was sourced from Pacific Coast K-9 in Northern Washington.
Trooper Ross started his career with OSP’s Fish and Wildlife division since 2017.
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The other half of the team is Senior Trooper Josh Wolcott and his yellow Labrador Retriever Buck. Central Oregon Daily News has previously featured them in our The Great Outdoors segment. They will work out of Springfield.
OSP said Wolcott and Buck have conducted numerous poaching investigations and logged hundreds of hours in the field since the inception of the program. Their effectiveness led to the approval of adding Scout and Trooper Ross. The costs of the program expansion are being covered by donations from the Oregon Wildlife Foundation.
One of the poaching cases in Oregon last year that got the attention of OSP happened last September in Deschutes County.
Oregon’s Turn In Poachers (TIP) program offers preference points or cash rewards for information leading toward a conclusion in the investigation of the illegal killing of wildlife and waste of big game.
PREFERENCE POINT REWARDS:
- 5 Points-Mountain Sheep
- 5 Points-Rocky Mountain Goat
- 5 Points-Moose
- 5 Points-Wolf
- 4 Points-Elk
- 4 Points-Deer
- 4 Points-Antelope
- 4 Points-Bear
- 4 Points-Cougar
Oregon Hunters Association (OHA) Cash Rewards:
- $1,000 Bighorn Sheep, Mountain Goat, and Moose
- $500 Elk, Deer, and Antelope
- $300 Bear, Cougar, and Wolf
- $300 Habitat Destruction
- $200 – Illegally obtaining Oregon hunting or angling license or tags
- $200 – Unlawful Lending/Borrowing Big Game Tag(s)
- $100 Upland Birds and Waterfowl
- $100 Game Birds or Furbearers
- $100 Game Fish and Shellfish
Oregon Wildlife Coalition (OWC) Cash Rewards:
Birds
- $500 Hawk, Falcon, Eagle, Owl, Osprey
- All other protected avian species: see category below for listed species
Mammals
- $500 Cougar, Bobcat, Beaver (public lands only), Black bears, Bighorn Sheep, Marten, Fisher, Sierra Nevada Red Fox
Species listed as “threatened” or “endangered” under state or federal Endangered Species Act (excludes fish)
- $1,000 (e.g. wolf, wolverine, kit fox, red tree vole, Canada lynx, sea otter, Columbian white-tailed deer, California brown pelican, western snowy plover, California least tern, northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet, short-tailed albatross, streaked horned lark, yellow-billed cuckoo, leatherback sea turtle, olive ridley sea turtle, Oregon spotted frog, green sea turtle, loggerhead sea turtle)
