Montpelier Conservation Officer Recognized

Hard work does pay off. District Conservation Officer Blake Phillips recently received the Idaho Wildlife Officer of The Year Award from Shikar-Safari Club. The award presented by the international conservation group recognizes excellence in the field of protecting wildlife and diligence in law enforcement. "Phillips is an outstanding officer and has an excellent record in detecting wildlife violations and getting the evidence to make not only the arrest, but also the conviction," the Shikar-Safari Club award said. "It is our honor to award Phillips for his continued outstanding work." Phillips is stationed in Montpelier, next to the Utah border. One of his first challenges upon being assigned there was to establish positive working relations with the court system. Once his credibility and diligence were established in local communities and courts, the word spread that fish and game violations would not be condoned and poachers faced stiff fines and penalties. Superb elk and deer hunting in his region brought with it non-resident hunters posing as residents to save money on license fees. Licenses were illegally purchased over the Internet and at vendors throughout the state making detection extremely difficult. Hours of tracking paperwork, days of computer work and hundreds of phone calls led to the arrest of 121 cases of wrong-class license purchases. This saved the state more than $30,000. Cases involving illegal guiding and taking trophy-class deer and elk out of season required working with other states from California to New York. Recent investigations into a group of Californians hunting illegally ended in arrests in Redding, California with significant fines and penalties. "Blake has a knack for finding big cases in his own backyard," Dexter Pitman, regional supervisor of the southeast Idaho Fish and Game region said. "He is one of those guys that is steady and relentlessly in his pursuit of illegal activity." Last year Phillips' positive relationship with small town communities in the area helped solve the mystery of who was running down weakened deer on the winter range in a remote part of Bear Lake County. A tip led him to a group of high schoolers who were joy-riding in the family Suburban and killing deer. Over his 20-year career Phillips has investigated and arrested poachers in several regions of Idaho. On his first assignment in Garden Valley, extensive investigation of eight men involved in illegal activities concluded with the discovery of 22 poached big game animals and convictions of all eight men with fines totaling more than $16,000. The hard work over the long haul earned him a promotion to District Conservation Officer. He currently supervises five officers, is a field-training officer and works one of the toughest districts in Idaho.