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Man, DNR clash on wildlife feeding
Agency defends action that man says was overkill
By DAN BENSON
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John Stroik says he just wanted to feed the wild turkeys on his land and spend time with his six children, watching from a nearby stand as the birds pecked at cracked corn tumbling from a gravity feeder he made from PVC pipe, painted camouflage and attached to a tree.
“We sometimes get upwards of 20 at a time,” Stroik said. “I built a little seat that my daughter can sit on, and so when I’m on my knees, our heads are at the same level.”
But now the Cedarburg police sergeant and hunting safety instructor is in Sheboygan County Circuit Court on a citation for illegally feeding wildlife. Stroik says he’s the victim of an elaborate Thanksgiving weekend stakeout, for which a Department of Natural Resources warden promised beer to whoever could catch him in the act of baiting wildlife, according to an internal DNR memo.
Stroik said he has never hunted on the property, and no baiting was involved.
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The DNR defends its action as an investigation it would have conducted in any similar situation. Stroik says the probe amounted to a heavy-handed overreaction.
Stroik has pleaded not guilty to the citation, which carries a fine of $323. He said he realizes now that the feeding set-up violated state regulations, but at the time, he didn’t realize it was illegal.
Stroik’s troubles with the DNR seem to begin in November when he called Conservation Warden Mike Clutter to ask whether he could join him on his rounds.
“I thought being close to him for a day would help me as an (hunting safety) instructor,” Stroik said.
But unknown to Stroik, Clutter had been on his property days before after an anonymous tip that Stroik was baiting deer on his 6-acre farm in the Sheboygan County Town of Sherman, according to a DNR report in Stroik’s possession.
On the land, Clutter saw the feeding tube and a well-tended trail marked “Buck Trail,” part of an arrow, apples, an “eroded” mineral block, an infrared-activated trail camera and Stroik’s stand, the report states.
Stroik said the trail allows his son with cerebral palsy to ride a lawn tractor through the woods, and the “Buck Trail” sign was from an anniversary party.
On Nov. 26, Clutter and another warden came to Stroik’s house on the pretense of arranging a ride-along. Instead, they confronted Stroik about the feeding area, according to the report.
Clutter wrote in his report that Stroik’s wife met the two wardens at the house and told them her husband was “hunting out back.” Clutter also wrote it appeared that Stroik’s wife radioed her husband that the wardens were coming to meet him, and shortly after, they saw Clutter “walking quickly from the woodlot towards the house.”
Clutter confronted Stroik, again surveyed the feeding area and took pictures.
Stroik said he hurried to meet Clutter because he didn’t want to keep the wardens waiting, and he was in the woods looking for a group of hunters he had seen trespassing on his land.
The next day, Clutter, according to his report, organized a stakeout involving at least two wardens – one near the feeding stand and one at the southeast corner of the property “in case whoever is in there makes a run for the house.”
Clutter, who was unable to take part in the stakeout, wrote: “There’s a beer in it for whoever catches the Greenbush and/or Adell guy. If Stroik is the baiter in Adell, I think I’ll be canceling his ride-a-long.”
On a map, Clutter labeled Stroik’s house, “Suspect Residence.”
A warden for southern Sheboygan County, Clutter did not return a phone call seeking comment.
It’s a bit bewildering to Stroik. “If you have that amount of time and energy and finances, then you have a lot more resources than we have” in the Cedarburg Police Department, Stroik said.
“I’m going to jeopardize a 25-year (law enforcement) career, with five years to retirement, to eat dog food in my house surrounded by a SWAT team?” he said in an interview. “It’s like the Old West.”
Regional DNR Supervisor Ron Preder said the stakeout was not overkill.
“We had a baiting site possibility with what appeared to be a hunting stand near two residences, one of which was his. We didn’t know for sure who the baiting stand belonged to,” Preder said. “It was no different than any other investigation.”
Preder also said Clutter’s “beer bounty,” as Stroik called it, was “an internal” communication to co-workers and merely an expression of gratitude for their help in an investigation.
Preder said feeding wildlife has become an even more serious issue in recent years because of chronic wasting disease, bovine tuberculosis and overpopulation in the state’s deer herd.
From the Feb. 10, 2006 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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