Fowl plot: Duck hunter tried to kill TWRA trees
The Associated Press
Aug 22 2004
NASHVILLE - An Ashland City man frustrated that a tract of government-owned trees was interfering with his duck hunting decided on a unique solution to his problem - poison.
Now Richard Johnson faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for trying to kill 198 trees in the Cheatham Lake Wildlife Management Area, which is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and managed by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.
A jury in Nashville convicted Johnson last week on charges of willfully injuring government property and a misdemeanor count of wantonly injuring trees on U.S. land.
Supervisors at the wildlife management area first became aware of Johnson's activity in mid-1998 when they discovered cartridges embedded in the bark of nearly 200 trees.
They were pretty sure what the devices were for - and how they got there - because the trees were near duck blinds No. 16 and 18, where Johnson had been pleading for the trees' removal, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Byron Jones.
The managers subsequently confronted Johnson's two hunting buddies, Ernest Robnette and Kevin Bennett, and the three were indicted in June 2003. Robnette and Bennett pleaded guilty earlier this year and testified last week against Johnson.
''They had hunted up there for years and years and were not in complete agreement with the TWRA or the Corps about how the area was being managed for the sake of the duck hunters,'' Jones said.
''They tried to persuade them to permit the clearing of certain areas. They wanted to make the area more attractive to ducks, and they felt, I guess, that the trees interfered with the ducks coming in and sitting down.''
The brass devices, which ringed scores of tree trunks, were used to inject herbicide beneath the bark, a process that killed several trees. Jones said Johnson targeted ''everything from oaks to hackberries.''
Officials were well aware of the men's views on the trees, according to the government, but the area is considered wetlands by the Corps and unsuitable for mechanized clearing. In addition, other wildlife in the area besides waterfowl is managed by the TWRA.
''I think these men had hunted this area when they were younger, in (the) late 1960s and 1970s and just remember there being a lot more ducks than they had been experiencing in more recent years,'' Jones said.
''They really couldn't get approval to do all the clearing they wanted to do.''
Johnson's penalty will be determined in November. Robnette and Bennett have not yet been sentenced.
