Hitting the Outdoorsman Show and dreaming about hunting trips

If you’re reading this around lunchtime or a little later, I am, hopefully, already attending the 10th annual Mat-Su Outdoorsman Show at The Curtis D. Menard Sports Complex in Wasilla. The show opens at noon today, and 10 a.m. tomorrow and Sunday. This is the first outdoor show of 2015 and should be just the ticket for early season outdoor shopping and getting a jump start on planning your upcoming outdoor adventures.

Maybe I’ll see you there!

I was running errands the other day and stopped by one of our local Valley gun and ammo stores to check on some items. I hadn’t been in this particular store for a while and thought I’d see if they had them. Yes, they did and, yes, I purchased them.

When I was checking out, the cashier was talking with another customer and their conversation caught my ear. The employee was flying out in a few days to do some spring snow goose hunting in the Dakota’s, depending on where the geese were as they moved north. I’m interested in hunting geese, and had purchased a 10-gauge shotgun just to do so, but I had never thought about going Outside for snow geese. I also had never really considered going to Cold Bay and the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge or the Izembek State Game Refuge either — that also came up in the conversation.

I haven’t seriously considered these two options because of cost — the gentleman said his two-day Dakota’s hunt with an outfitter, plus travel time, would run four to five days and cost $2,000 to $2,500, depending on motel, car rental, and other associated expenses. The Izembek trip could probably run twice that price because just flying to Cold Bay was well over $1,000 last time I looked. I would expect motel and meal costs plus the cost of daily guide fees to add a considerable amount to the Cold Bay goose trip expenses.

Ahh, well, I can always dream and hope to win the Publisher’s Clearing House drawing or the Irish Sweepstakes some day (I don’t have any rich relatives)!!!!

Published media articles report that Roland Maw, the governor’s first choice to replace Karl Johnstone on the Board of Fisheries, has been charged by the state of Montana for applying for and buying Montana resident hunting licenses when he was not a resident of the state. Maw owns property in Montana and has listed the address, off and on over the years, as his residence address. He also maintains a residence on the Kenai Peninsula and has used that as his residence address as well.

The seven charges filed in Montana are listed as misdemeanors and carry a maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine and six-months is the county jail for each count. These charges arose from the period of 2008 to 2014, when Maw purchased the licenses.

The Montana charges are serious but beg the question: will the state of Alaska investigate and, if found appropriate, also file charges against Maw for possible Permanent Fund Dividend fraud here in Alaska?

The same published report states that Maw filed for and received a PFD claiming Alaska residency for the same time period when he was applying for and buying Montana resident hunting licenses. Quoting from the report, “Under Alaska law, a person is ineligible to receive a dividend if he or she obtains any benefit ‘as a result of establishing or maintaining any claim of residency in another state.’ It’s a misdemeanor to give a false written statement on an application, according to state law.”

Under our legal system, a person is innocent until proven guilty. All this business with Roland Maw is still pending in Montana’s legal system, so at this point, he is innocent. However, it would appear that evidence is not on Maw’s side to maintain and secure a “not guilty” verdict regarding Montana’s pending charges. If that proves to be the case, I would hope the State of Alaska pursues a vigorous investigation and prosecution, if warranted, of Maw for defrauding the state of seven PFD’s and any other charges which arise regarding residency claims for hunting licenses, false statements or whatever.

Years ago, I worked with a young man from northern California who worked seasonally here in Alaska and returned to California every fall. He applied for and received PFD’s from Alaska during these same years. He served time in prison when this was discovered.

Maw may have a bleak future in store.