Kevin Lee Chelf, a pipeline worker from Iowa City, Iowa, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa at Rock Island, Ill., to the illegal take and transportation of trophy-quality white-tailed deer and bull elk valued at $68,000 in violation of state and federal wildlife laws.
In his plea agreement, Chelf, 44, admitted that between 1992 and 2002, he poached 12 trophy-quality white tailed deer from various locations southeastern Iowa, including the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant, Mark Twain National Wildlife Refuge and Iowa state and county parks. He also admitted to poaching two bull elk in Colorado in 1997 and 1998. After killing the deer and elk, he would retrieve only the antlers and heads, leaving the remainder of the animal to waste. The deer mounts were scored using a system established by The Boone and Crockett Club, a Montana-based non-profit club that maintains a registry of trophy animals. Boone and Crockett scores for the poached deer ranged from 170 (typical) to 220 (atypical)
Chelf is the second Iowan to be prosecuted as a result of a large-scale poaching investigation by special agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Iowa and Colorado Departments of Natural Resources, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. In September, George Waters of West Branch, Iowa pleaded guilty to poaching 45 trophy quality deer and elk valued at $270,000 from locations in Iowa and Colorado beginning in 1992. Waters is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 5 in federal court in Rock Island, Ill. No sentencing date has yet been set for Chelf.
Chelf entered his guilty plea in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas J. Shields. According to U.S. Attorney Steven Patrick O’Meara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa, the government’s agreement with Chelf requires him to serve eight months in federal prison without parole, pay a fine of $5,000 to the Lacey Act Reward Fund, a $50 special assessment and one year supervised probation upon his release from prison. Chelf will also pay restitution of $10,000 to the State of Iowa, and $7,500 to the State of Colorado. He will also forfeit 25 white-tailed deer skull mounts and other hunting items seized by state and federal law enforcement agents during the investigation.
The interstate transportation and sale of wildlife taken in violation of any state laws is also a violation of the Lacey Act, a federal wildlife protection law. Chelf pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor violations of the Lacey Act, which include a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine for each offense.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System which encompasses more than 542 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 66 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 78 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
