By Eric Freedman
A Wisconsin bear hunting guide has been barred for a year from hunting on federal land.
Timothy Collar’s crime: illegal bear baiting in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest.
After Collar pleaded guilty, U.S. District Judge Bryan Conway signed a sentencing order that prohibits him “from entering the national forest with a firearm for the purpose of hunting” for 12 months.
The state’s current bear season ends on Oct. 7.
He also was fined $3,000 after pleading guilty, court records show. The crime carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $5,000 fine.
The Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest covers about 1.5 million acres in northern Wisconsin.
Here’s the backstory as laid out in the plea agreement:
In July 2023, Wisconsin Conservation Wardin Jamin Leuzzo investigated a complaint about two 55-gallon barrels dumped in the national forest. He found them about 20 feet from a U.S. Forest Service road, lying on their sides without covers so animals could access them.
“He also noticed worn paths that appeared to be from animals coming from the woods to the barrel,.” the court filing said.
Inside the barrels was a green, red and brown substance that “appeared to have been a liquid at one time but had solidified,” it said.
Two days later, Leuzzo found two more plastic barrels containing a “solidified red substance” he believed was being used as bear bait.
Trail cameras he mounted photographed a truck arriving near one of the bait sites and carrying barrels, a bear bait stump and 5-gallon buckets of popcorn and bread. He recognized the driver as Collar, and the truck was registered to him, the plea agreement said.
Another trail camera at a different site showed Collar driving with a hollowed-out bear bait stump and a 5-gallon bucket of bait.
When Leuzzi stopped Collar’s truck, “Collar became vulgar and claimed someone else must have put the bait out.”
About two weeks later, photos from yet another trail cam showed Collar carrying a bucket of bait and resetting the bait stump with an illegal concrete cap, the plea agreement said.
In a press release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said, “The barrels were placed there for the purpose of baiting bear, and they were uncapped, close to public roads and significantly oversized.
“Collar also damaged natural resources for the purpose of gaining access to the bait sites,” it said.