Kansas might be that way, but I know Iowa and Minnesota most certainly are not. In both places the DNR Officer can go just about anywhere he wants if he knows or suspects that there are hunters there. My brother and I got approached by a DNR officer this year in his driveway which is 1/4 mile off the road. He drove right up to where we were by our vehicles to chat with us. So I don't know about where this happened, but there are states that allow DNR Officers to go onto private land if they know hunters are there.

As far as the baiting thing, it sounds like a BS charge that he should have fought in court. It's a moot point now because he already plead guilty and paid the fine. Regarding the friendship strain; I'd say that the guy that dropped the pecans, and subsequently paid the fine even though he didn't get the ticket himself, is a stand-up guy that did the right thing. He made a simple mistake and he owned up to it the best he could by paying his friends ticket. Did his friend lose his hunting privileges because of the ticket? If not, then I think that his anger is unjustified and he'd be a fool to wreck a good friendship when the responsible party owned up and did the right thing. He should look at it this way, the pecan munching friend could have left him high and dry and made him pay his own ticket, and then he'd have just cause to be angry, but that didn't happen.

Mike