Bear baiting brings stiff fines for 2 men

TALKEETNA — A pair of hunters was sentenced on charges connecting them to an illegal bear bait station Alaska State Troopers uncovered a year ago.

According to an AST press release, Yukon Grubaugh and Scott Minor of Anchorage pleaded guilty in the case on May 17. Grubaugh pleaded to two counts of using unlawful methods to take big game, taking a brown bear without having a brown bear tag and making a false statement. Minor pleaded to one count of using unlawful methods.

According to an affidavit Trooper Dan Valentine filed in the case against Minor, the bait station came to light on May 29 when troopers received report of an orphaned black bear cub.

Valentine wrote that he talked to neighbors and found an ATV trail blocked with cut pieces of brush on South Fork Road. The neighbor told Valentine that Grubaugh had installed the trail two years prior.

“Investigation of the trail revealed an unregistered bait station with a black bear and brown bear carcass,” Valentine wrote.

Valentine wrote that the station was not just unregistered, but illegal since it was less than a mile from numerous homes, including Grubaugh’s.

There was also a video camera there, which Valentine seized. On it, he saw both bears feeding at the station. Grubaugh’s name, driver’s license number and phone number were inside the camera.

Neighbors also told him that a particular bear with very blond fur and dark legs had been taken there. Valentine wrote that he later found what appeared to be the hide of that same bear at a taxidermist’s business. Grubaugh wrote on forms relating to the bear that he’d shot it at Seattle Creek, 100 miles away. Minor made similarly false statements about a black bear hide he’d taken to the same taxidermist.

A month after the orphan was found, troopers searched both Minor’s and Grubaugh’s homes and businesses. They tried to talk to both men, but came up short.

“Grubaugh stated he was an alcoholic and couldn’t remember most of what happened that spring,” he said. “Minor stated that he did not have anything to say.”

During the search troopers seized computers and electronic storage devices.

“On Minor’s personal laptop, analysis revealed Minor searching the Internet for ‘Punishment for Unregistered Bait Station’ approximately 20 minutes after I had attempted to contact him at his residence,” Valentine wrote.

After pleading guilty, Grubaugh was fined $5,300 and Minor $2,500. Both were ordered to forfeit guns used in the offenses.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.