Juvenile hunter who killed grizzly goes before judge

A judge handed down a penalty Friday for a North Idaho teenager who shot and killed a federally protected grizzly bear last fall north of Wallace.

The 14-year-old boy was charged with the unlawful killing of a grizzly, an endangered species, and hunting without a bear tag. Because he is a juvenile, his case is sealed and the penalty was not disclosed.

His father, Dan Tesky of Silverton, was fined $300 for setting bear bait too close to a house. In a plea agreement Friday, Tesky, 38, admitted guilt.

Hunting and fishing are a big part of Tesky’s life and he prides himself on sportsmanship, said Tesky’s lawyer, James Siebe of Coeur d’Alene. Tesky thought the law allowed bait within a quarter-mile of a house, rather than a half-mile, Siebe said.

Magistrate Douglas Payne noted that the illegal baiting was unrelated to the grizzly killing, and he imposed a fine below what Siebe and the prosecutor jointly had proposed.

“The fact it was a grizzly bear is virtually irrelevant, it seems,” Payne said.

The juvenile could have faced fines up to $2,000, the loss of his hunting license up to six years, and possibly jail time.

The boy, who previously had hunted bear, went to a store with his mother and purchased a bear tag after he shot the grizzly on Sept. 30, 2015, off Beaver Creek Road north of Wallace, according to a report by state and federal wildlife officers.

Dan Tesky told investigators he sent his son to check on the bread and apples he had put out to draw in bears. The boy, armed with a .30-06 rifle, saw the bear at the bait and shot the animal twice, including a head shot that killed it, according to the report.

The 2-year-old male grizzly had been relocated by Montana and federal biologists as part of a program to boost the Cabinet Mountains grizzly population. It was fitted with a GPS collar and released by researchers near Idaho on Aug. 4, eight weeks before it was killed.

As the bear wandered into the Silver Valley and its location was tracked, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cautioned the public to be aware of the grizzly’s presence. Officials also noted that the animal did not have a history of conflicts with humans.

The teen told investigators it looked like a black bear to him, and that he didn’t see the GPS collar around its neck or the grizzly’s distinct shoulder hump. Dan Tesky added that his son is experienced with bears, and so he was “confused” and “frustrated” about the misidentification.

He added in his interview with officers that the family owned up to the mistake and was cooperating with authorities. Soon after the shooting, Tesky called to report it to Seth Altmeyer, senior conservation officer with the state Fish and Game agency.

Dan Tesky’s case had been sealed until Friday morning. The Spokesman-Review challenged the judge’s December order to seal the case.

“Adult criminal cases should not be handled behind closed doors,” Coeur d’Alene attorney Joel Hazel, representing the newspaper, argued Friday morning before Judge Payne.

Siebe and St. Maries attorney Maria Dunham, acting as special prosecutor in the case, did not object. Payne unsealed the case and opened Dan Tesky’s court hearing, but the boy’s hearing remained closed.

All three charges in the case were misdemeanor violation’s of Idaho’s hunting laws. Had the case been tried in federal court, the young hunter could have faced much harsher penalties for killing an endangered species. It’s not uncommon for state agencies to take the lead in cases of hunting violations involving endangered species, said Brent Lawrence, a spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service in Portland.

Hunters are expected to know the difference between black bears and grizzlies. But Idaho does not require hunters to take a mandatory bear identification test before issuing them a bear tag. Montana does have such a requirement.

“From the standpoint of the hunting public, and I’m a hunter myself, these are things that are at least potentially and possibly largely preventable by education,” said Wayne Kasworm with the Fish and Wildlife Service recovery team.

Over the past 25 years the agency has transplanted 18 grizzlies into the Cabinet Mountains south of Libby, Montana, and the Yaak River drainage north of Libby. The agency estimates about 50 grizzlies populate those areas now – halfway toward a recovery goal of 100 bears.

The relocated bears are from the Flathead River backcountry near Kalispell, Montana. Five of the 18 grizzlies have wandered away from the target range, Kasworm said.

“Most of them have gone back to the place where they were originally captured, but this one was off course,” Kasworm said of the grizzly shot in September.

“We regard this as a long-term effort, and we fully expect to hit some bumps in the road,” he said.