Canmore – A St. Albert man received a stiff fine in provincial court Thursday for illegally hunting a white tail deer in October.
Darren Stuart Schulte pleaded guilty on his first appearance to charges of illegally hunting in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park and hunting without a licence. An additional charge of discharging a firearm in a provincial park was withdrawn by Crown prosecutor Bev Shugg.
Commissioner D. Elliot fined Schulte $2,500 for shooting the doe and a further $287 for not having the appropriate hunting tags. His hunting licence was also suspended for one year.
Schulte said he was unaware he was in a park and that he needed a special draw tag in addition to his residential hunting tag at that time of year.
“I read the hunting regulation book wrong,” he said adding it was his first time out hunting.
Elliot, however, took note of the fact the 20-year-old was 20 kilometres inside the park and would have had to pass two signs along Smith Dorrien Trail indicating that fact.
“You would have to be blind not to see that sign,” he said adding, “That regulation book makes it pretty obvious there is a draw regime and what licence you have to have.
“You have to be really stupid or a really bad reader to make this mistake.”
Shugg said on Oct. 9 at 6 p.m. conservation officer Donna Schley heard a single shot from a high-powered rifle while she was patrolling in the park.
Schley investigated and came upon a dark blue Chevrolet Silverado pickup on the roadside and noticed Schulte and another male in the trees with a dead white tailed doe.
“He was informed he was in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park where it is illegal to hunt and would be charged,” Shugg said.
The Crown requested Schulte be required to take a hunter education course and that he pay for the deer to be processed and donated to the Morley reserve.
