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Mark Freeman Commentary Bait was bad idea for guide By MARK FREEMAN REDDING, Calif. -- A Northern California hunting guide, who once doubled as a local Safari Club International leader, was fined $5,000 and forfeited his pickup truck for illegally using bait to hunt black bears within scent range of Lassen Volcanic National Park. Gregory Theodore Morton, 48, of Bend in Tehama County, was sentenced Friday in Redding after pleading no contest to two misdemeanor charges. A North Bend, Ore., woman was also fined $2,500 for her role in the case, and charges against a 61-year-old Myrtle Point man involved in the case were dropped by prosecutors. Morton, a licensed hunting guide, was allegedly using bait to lure trophy bears from Lassen Park, then using dogs to tree the bears for hunters. California law bans placing or using bait to hunt black bears, but hound-hunting is legal as long as hunters do not hunt or pursue bears within 400 yards of a landfill or bait site. The charges stemmed from an illegal killing of a large black bear treed within a mile of the Lassen Park boundary on Sept. 21, 1997, according to the California Department of Fish and Game. On that day, California fish and game officers had staked out a bait pile discovered by a deer hunter two days earlier and one day before the fall bear season began. The bait site contained a 200-pound mix of corn, oats, barley and molasses. While staking out the pile, the officers watched Yvonne Cynthia Soderholm, 44, of North Bend, and Thomas Lee Barnett, 61, of Myrtle Point, drive to the bait pile Sept. 21 and release a tracking dog. The dog then pursued the scent of a bear that had previously visited the bait pile. The dog tracked the bear for 15 minutes and treed it about a mile from the Lassen Park boundary, game officers said. The bear was then shot by a legally licensed hunter who had hired Morton but did not know bait was used to lure the bear, the state DFG said. When officers arrested Morton later that day, they seized a rifle, the bear carcass, an empty bottle of fish emulsion and nine empty feed sacks that had been stuffed into a hidden compartment in Morton's truck, the DFG said. In early 1998, Morton was charged with eight misdemeanor violations of wildlife laws, including one count of conspiracy. After he was charged, he resigned as president of the local SCI chapter, game officers said. Morton pleaded no contest to a single charge of using bait to hunt bears as well as a vehicle code violation for having Washington state license plates on his truck. Along with the $5,000 fine, Morton forfeited his truck and was also sentenced to three years' probation, during which he may not hunt or guide hunters, possess hunting equipment or be present during hunting activity or face another $5,000 in fines and a year in jail, the DFG said. Soderholm earlier pleaded no contest to a charge of illegally taking wildlife and was ordered to pay a $2,500 fine by a judge who also imposed the same three-year probation as Morton. Staff writer Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. Call him at 776-4470, or e-mail him at: [email protected] ) Outdoor Journal main page Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA