Lanse couche couche

The reports say that the game warden was patrolling the area, but then states that he was supposed to be investigating a baiting in the area. Kind of unclear whether he had direct information that the property in question was specifically where it was occurring or if he was just wandering about the general area. Will be interesting to see all the facts, so we are all kind of speculating at this point. No matter, it just seems to me that a GW in camo going onto private property over a pile of corn is kind of like sending a SWAT team in on someone for an unpaid parking ticket. Like I said though, it is kind of a moot point since they do have authority to do stuff like this. See comments below.

As a general rule, game wardens have the authority to enter all privately held lands and public lands in the course of their duties. This power is kind of vaguely stated in the hunting regs,but it is generally taken that they can enter private or public ground at will and check hunters even if they are interupting their hunting. For example,a few years ago, the front page of a local newspaper here in Ohio had a picture of a game warden checking a hunters license, while he was in his tree stand, on public ground. I think that there are a number of members here who in the past have talked about encountering GW's who were patrolling private property. There was a recent court case in Ohio which possibly indicated that the GW's power to enter private property should be limited to when they actually know that people are hunting there. I can no longer find the link for this case, but will post it if i do.