Practice of deer baiting at issue in Laconia court & at Statehouse
Written by Gail Ober
LACONIA — The Belknap County Attorney and a New Durham man reached an agreement in the 4th Circuit Court, Laconia Division yesterday regarding four violations of deer baiting in Alton.
David S. Thayer, 33 agreed to a violation level offense of placing bait on August 10, 2012 on the property of another without consent of the owner and to baiting deer before the official deer baiting season began on September 1.
In exchange, Melissa Guldbrandsen agreed not to prosecute him for a violation of placing more than two active bait sites on one property and a violation for placing a bait sight on a property without identifying himself and his address as the deer baiter.
All totaled, Thayer, who owns the Coyote Creek Outfitters, LLC in Rochester will pay $248 in fines and fees. He could loose his license to hunt in New Hampshire for up to a year.
Thayer's agreement to accept responsibility for two violations and agree to pay two of the fines comes as the New Hampshire State Legislature considers — for the third time since 2007 — a bill that would ban deer baiting in the state.
House Bill 258-FN is scheduled for a hearing Thursday at 10:30 a.m. in Room 305-307 in the Legislative Office Building in Concord.
Right now, deer baiting is allowed in New Hampshire but regulated by the Department of Fish and Game. Regulations include no deer baiting after April 15 or before September 1 — one of the violations Thayer agreed he violated. Other regulations include a provision that if a hunter is not on his or her own property, permission must be granted by the land owner and a permit must be filed with the land owner, the hunter, the Fish and Game officer whose is on patrol in that area and the Department of Fish and Game.
The copy of the permit must contain a description of the bait site and how it can be located and, unless the deer bait is placed by a guide company, no more than two sites can be on any one property.
A hunter must also identify his or her bait site with a name and an address.
According to Jason Parent, the co-owner of New Hampshire Guide Services and a life-long hunter and professional hunting guide who is against HB-258, there isn't a problem with deer baiting in the state.
He also added that because the surrounding New England states have banned deer baiting, New Hampshire could stand to loose a considerable amount of revenue from people coming from other states.
The fiscal note provided by Rep. David Kidder (R-New London), the primary sponsor of the bill and the Clerk of the House Fish and Game and Marine Resources Committee, says the fiscal costs to the state would be negligible and primarily will be borne by the judiciary. He estimates each case could cost the court system $42.36. The bill notes that there is a possibility that new law could add up to $10,000 or more in court costs.
No economic impact statistics were included in the fiscal note.
Parent's other problem with HB-258 is that the bill's advocates have provided no statistics regarding deer baiting that indicate how many deer are harvested over bait. "They don't ask at the (deer check) stations," he said.
"There were 60,000 licenses issued in New Hampshire last year. How many harvest over bait?" he asked. "Nobody knows," he said answering his own question.
He said he hunted 34 of the 35 days of the 2012 hunting season and he never saw a bait site. "I'm in the woods as much as anybody," he said.
If it was a real problem, contends Parent, the Department of Fish and Game could regulate it further through their own rule making authority but have never done so.
"Yet this bill will go to the Legislature with their support," Parent said, noting that the Fish and Game Commission met in January and voted to support the bill.
He said the Department of Fish and Game just doesn't want to deal with deer baiting. "They don't care that it's not a problem," Parent said.
Kidder says the Fish and Game Department has statistics that show deer baiting is becoming a problem. He said it is shifting the way deer behave and attracting deer from one location to others.
Parent's reply to this is that deer in winter will typically congregate in natural protection zones called "deer yards" and that baiting doesn't really make as much of a difference as topography, the year's acorn crop, and other naturally occurring weather and food supply events.
He also said deer baiting is a lot of work and not a lot of hunters do it — at least in the North Country where he does most of his hunting.
Kidder, also a life-long hunter, said his primary reason for sponsoring the no baiting bill was "fairness."
"Hunting is about the chase," he said. "It's not about putting food out."
"Find a track a follow it. To put food out and sit in a stand is unfair," he continued.
Parent said for him personally it is about the chase. He said he doesn't bait and doesn't use tree stands, but the way he hunts and the way others choose to hunt should be left to the hunter not to the state Legislature.
David S. Thayer, 33 agreed to a violation level offense of placing bait on August 10, 2012 on the property of another without consent of the owner and to baiting deer before the official deer baiting season began on September 1.
In exchange, Melissa Guldbrandsen agreed not to prosecute him for a violation of placing more than two active bait sites on one property and a violation for placing a bait sight on a property without identifying himself and his address as the deer baiter.
All totaled, Thayer, who owns the Coyote Creek Outfitters, LLC in Rochester will pay $248 in fines and fees. He could loose his license to hunt in New Hampshire for up to a year.
Thayer's agreement to accept responsibility for two violations and agree to pay two of the fines comes as the New Hampshire State Legislature considers — for the third time since 2007 — a bill that would ban deer baiting in the state.
House Bill 258-FN is scheduled for a hearing Thursday at 10:30 a.m. in Room 305-307 in the Legislative Office Building in Concord.
Right now, deer baiting is allowed in New Hampshire but regulated by the Department of Fish and Game. Regulations include no deer baiting after April 15 or before September 1 — one of the violations Thayer agreed he violated. Other regulations include a provision that if a hunter is not on his or her own property, permission must be granted by the land owner and a permit must be filed with the land owner, the hunter, the Fish and Game officer whose is on patrol in that area and the Department of Fish and Game.
The copy of the permit must contain a description of the bait site and how it can be located and, unless the deer bait is placed by a guide company, no more than two sites can be on any one property.
A hunter must also identify his or her bait site with a name and an address.
According to Jason Parent, the co-owner of New Hampshire Guide Services and a life-long hunter and professional hunting guide who is against HB-258, there isn't a problem with deer baiting in the state.
He also added that because the surrounding New England states have banned deer baiting, New Hampshire could stand to loose a considerable amount of revenue from people coming from other states.
The fiscal note provided by Rep. David Kidder (R-New London), the primary sponsor of the bill and the Clerk of the House Fish and Game and Marine Resources Committee, says the fiscal costs to the state would be negligible and primarily will be borne by the judiciary. He estimates each case could cost the court system $42.36. The bill notes that there is a possibility that new law could add up to $10,000 or more in court costs.
No economic impact statistics were included in the fiscal note.
Parent's other problem with HB-258 is that the bill's advocates have provided no statistics regarding deer baiting that indicate how many deer are harvested over bait. "They don't ask at the (deer check) stations," he said.
"There were 60,000 licenses issued in New Hampshire last year. How many harvest over bait?" he asked. "Nobody knows," he said answering his own question.
He said he hunted 34 of the 35 days of the 2012 hunting season and he never saw a bait site. "I'm in the woods as much as anybody," he said.
If it was a real problem, contends Parent, the Department of Fish and Game could regulate it further through their own rule making authority but have never done so.
"Yet this bill will go to the Legislature with their support," Parent said, noting that the Fish and Game Commission met in January and voted to support the bill.
He said the Department of Fish and Game just doesn't want to deal with deer baiting. "They don't care that it's not a problem," Parent said.
Kidder says the Fish and Game Department has statistics that show deer baiting is becoming a problem. He said it is shifting the way deer behave and attracting deer from one location to others.
Parent's reply to this is that deer in winter will typically congregate in natural protection zones called "deer yards" and that baiting doesn't really make as much of a difference as topography, the year's acorn crop, and other naturally occurring weather and food supply events.
He also said deer baiting is a lot of work and not a lot of hunters do it — at least in the North Country where he does most of his hunting.
Kidder, also a life-long hunter, said his primary reason for sponsoring the no baiting bill was "fairness."
"Hunting is about the chase," he said. "It's not about putting food out."
"Find a track a follow it. To put food out and sit in a stand is unfair," he continued.
Parent said for him personally it is about the chase. He said he doesn't bait and doesn't use tree stands, but the way he hunts and the way others choose to hunt should be left to the hunter not to the state Legislature.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 06 February 2013 04:19
Hits: 397
Tower Hill Tavern finally gains OK for live music on 2nd floor
Written by Michael Kitch
LACONIA — "It's been a long road," Jay Santagate told the Planning Board, which last night unanimously approved his request to convert the upper floor of the Tower Hill Tavern at Weirs Beach to a live music venue after a number of public hearings and several rounds of sound tests over the the last 18 months.
Santagate met stiff resistance from his neighbors, particularly Robert and Michael Ames, owners of the Half Moon Motel and Cottages, and Joe Driscoll, owner of the Cozy Inn and Lakeview House, who claimed that the sound of late night music would disturb the sleep of their guests.
In letter delivered to the board last night, Driscoll said entertainment downstairs at the Tower Hill Tavern has already taken a toll on his business, prompting guests to check out and demand refunds.
Michael Ames reminded the board that other bars offered live music without disturbing their neighbors and asked "if they can do it, why can't these guys?" Denying charges of seeking to stifle business, his brother Robert remarked "we don't care if they're juggling chainsaws in there as long as we can't hear them."
Countering, Michael Foote of Rollercoaster Road referred to the bells and whistles coming from the arcade on Lakeside Ave., which is owned by the Ames brothers and suggested "maybe we should shut the arches at nine o'clock so people could get to sleep even sooner." Noise and music, he said are "the sounds of The Weirs trying to make money while we hear coughing, wheezing and snoring from the sleep establishment."
Both Santagate and the Ames hired sound engineers and when they submitted conflicting reports the Planning Board commissioned Eric Reuter of Reuter Associates, LLC of Portsmouth, an acoustic and noise consultant, to prepare a third party review. Using what he described as "conservative assumptions," he said that with the building insulated and the doors and windows shut that the sound escaping the building would be muffled, not excessive." He calculated the level would reach 53 decibels, equivalent to a civil conversation, at the nearest cottage.
Attorney Regina Nadeau, representing the Ames brothers, urged the board to limit the sound inside the building to less than 90 decibels and outside the building to less than 45 decibels between 10 and 11 p.m. as well as to stipulate that the sound not be "clearly audible at 50 feet from the property line. She stressed that "we're challenging what happens after 9 p.m. on weeknights and after 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
In approving the application the board specified that the upper floor be properly insulated and the doors and windows shut during performances. In addition, bands would play only until 11 p.m. from Memorial Day to Labor Day and until 10 p.m. from Labor Day to Memorial Day and, following Nadeau's proposal, no sound would be clearly audible 50 feet from the property line.
Santagate met stiff resistance from his neighbors, particularly Robert and Michael Ames, owners of the Half Moon Motel and Cottages, and Joe Driscoll, owner of the Cozy Inn and Lakeview House, who claimed that the sound of late night music would disturb the sleep of their guests.
In letter delivered to the board last night, Driscoll said entertainment downstairs at the Tower Hill Tavern has already taken a toll on his business, prompting guests to check out and demand refunds.
Michael Ames reminded the board that other bars offered live music without disturbing their neighbors and asked "if they can do it, why can't these guys?" Denying charges of seeking to stifle business, his brother Robert remarked "we don't care if they're juggling chainsaws in there as long as we can't hear them."
Countering, Michael Foote of Rollercoaster Road referred to the bells and whistles coming from the arcade on Lakeside Ave., which is owned by the Ames brothers and suggested "maybe we should shut the arches at nine o'clock so people could get to sleep even sooner." Noise and music, he said are "the sounds of The Weirs trying to make money while we hear coughing, wheezing and snoring from the sleep establishment."
Both Santagate and the Ames hired sound engineers and when they submitted conflicting reports the Planning Board commissioned Eric Reuter of Reuter Associates, LLC of Portsmouth, an acoustic and noise consultant, to prepare a third party review. Using what he described as "conservative assumptions," he said that with the building insulated and the doors and windows shut that the sound escaping the building would be muffled, not excessive." He calculated the level would reach 53 decibels, equivalent to a civil conversation, at the nearest cottage.
Attorney Regina Nadeau, representing the Ames brothers, urged the board to limit the sound inside the building to less than 90 decibels and outside the building to less than 45 decibels between 10 and 11 p.m. as well as to stipulate that the sound not be "clearly audible at 50 feet from the property line. She stressed that "we're challenging what happens after 9 p.m. on weeknights and after 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
In approving the application the board specified that the upper floor be properly insulated and the doors and windows shut during performances. In addition, bands would play only until 11 p.m. from Memorial Day to Labor Day and until 10 p.m. from Labor Day to Memorial Day and, following Nadeau's proposal, no sound would be clearly audible 50 feet from the property line.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 06 February 2013 04:03
Hits: 345
Retired minister 1 of 30 still vying to be next Red Sox PA announcer
Written by Roger Amsden
GILFORD — An 82-year-old retired Methodist minister who shined shoes for fans during Sunday doubleheaders at Fenway Park in the 1940s is one of 30 finalists for the job as Boston Red Sox public address announcer.
The Rev. William Morley, who now lives in Wesley Woods, sent a tape of his voice to the Red Sox last year after they announced they were looking for candidates to replace Carl Beane, whose booming baritone was the voice of the Red Sox at Fenway Park from 2003 until he died last May in a single-car accident in Sturbridge, Mass., after suffering a heart attack.
Morley, who can still recall seeing the legendary Connie Mack, owner-manager of the Philadelphia Athletics for 50 years until he retired in 1950, seated stiff as a ramrod in the visitors dugout with his straw hat, suit and tie and freshly starched shirt, says he was thrilled when late last month he received an invitation to attend a tryout for the announcer's position.
He was one of 170 who showed up for the tryouts on Saturday, January 26. Today he's headed back to Fenway Park, one of 30 who received a callback from the Red Sox for a second listen.
''It's quite an honor. It was a real thrill to sit in the announcer's booth and do a play by play of the Red Sox and Yankees,'' says Morley, who, before he moved to Gilford served more than 40 years as a Methodist minister in the rural eastern Maine town of Orrington, not far from Bangor .
A high school dropout who went to work at the GE Foundry in Everett, Mass., right after World War II, Morley had eight older brothers and weighed only 115 pounds when he joined in U.S. Air Force in 1950, shortly after the Korean War broke out.
He says that his earliest memories of Fenway Park are from 1939, Ted Williams' rookie year, before the bullpens were built in front of right field stands and he always recalls the incredible green of the park when he first entered it.
''You could watch Tex Hughson warming up right in front of you in the seats. I used to take my shoebox right into Kenmore Square and onto what is now Yawkey Way and set up there and start shining shoes during the Sunday doubleheaders. At the end of the day I'd come home with $10 for the family. We could really use the money then, although later we got to be pretty prosperous ,'' says Morley, who added that a good time to work his way into Fenway Park without paying admission was during the National Anthem — when the ushers and police were distracted.
He said that a police officer once caught him going through the turnstile but other than that one time he always made it into the park.
Morley says the best place to watch a game was from the bleachers and that he got to see many of the greats over the years, like Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra, who liked to fool around and kept up continual chatter with the fans.
''DiMaggio was different. He was very quiet and serious and didn't take part in any horseplay. In between innings he'd sit in the dugout and have a cigarette and a cup of coffee'' Morley remembers.
He also remembered Williams for his temper and his feuding with the fans, but also as the most feared hitter of his era and perhaps of all time.
''He had a temper and once during batting practice threw his bat and it lodged way up in the batting cage. Manager Joe Cronin made him climb up the cage and bring it down,'' says Morley.
But as much as he liked the Red Sox his real favorites were the Boston Braves, who moved to Milwaukee in 1953 after having been a fixture in Boston for over 75 years.
''I loved the Braves' game and watching Warren Spahn and his high leg kick. I remember Sam Jethroe, the first black ballplayer in Boston.'' says Morley, who says that the Red Sox were more popular with the Irish Catholic population of Boston while the Braves seemed to have a larger following among Protestants.
He said that there was real excitement in Boston during 1948 when the Braves won the National League pennant and the Red Sox tied with the Cleveland Indians for first place and the prospect of Subway Series loomed. But the Red Sox lost the playoff game in Fenway Park 8-3 to the Indians when Lou Boudreau, the Cleveland shortstop and player-manager, hit a pair of home runs.
Morley, who served in the Air Force and played as a drummer in bands at a number of Air Force bases in the west, recalls that he and a trumpet and sax player once landed a gig in Las Vegas at $25 a man..
For whatever reason the gig was raided and while the trumpet and sax player were able to make it out the door with their instruments, he was left behind with his mother of pearl Air Force drums and was arrested, an event which caused his commanding officer to take away two of his stripes.
He later won those stripes back and after he was honorably discharged in 1954, returned to the Boston area, where he met his wife to be while attending a service at a Methodist Church.
''I always had a love for the church but didn't have an education. But the Methodist Church needed ministers in rural areas and worked with me and sent me to a theological school in Bangor, Maine. It was tough because we had to learn Greek and Hebrew and I wasn't very good at them. Summers I'd go the theology school in Boston and by 1968 was a full minister,'' says Morley.
Morley, who is currently undergoing chemotherapy for cancer and has diabetes, says that he's taking one day at a time and enjoying life and getting lots of fresh air and eating a healthy diet as he prepares for tonight's broadcast challenge.
''I'm going to give it a try. Win, lose or draw, it's been a great experience.''
CAPTION SLUGGED MORLEY
The Rev. William Morley, a retired Methodist minister from Gilford, still keeps up with his drum playing. He is one of 30 who was called back to Fenway Park for a second audition tonight as the new public address announcer for the Boston Red Sox. (Roger Amsden/for The Laconia Daily Sun)
The Rev. William Morley, who now lives in Wesley Woods, sent a tape of his voice to the Red Sox last year after they announced they were looking for candidates to replace Carl Beane, whose booming baritone was the voice of the Red Sox at Fenway Park from 2003 until he died last May in a single-car accident in Sturbridge, Mass., after suffering a heart attack.
Morley, who can still recall seeing the legendary Connie Mack, owner-manager of the Philadelphia Athletics for 50 years until he retired in 1950, seated stiff as a ramrod in the visitors dugout with his straw hat, suit and tie and freshly starched shirt, says he was thrilled when late last month he received an invitation to attend a tryout for the announcer's position.
He was one of 170 who showed up for the tryouts on Saturday, January 26. Today he's headed back to Fenway Park, one of 30 who received a callback from the Red Sox for a second listen.
''It's quite an honor. It was a real thrill to sit in the announcer's booth and do a play by play of the Red Sox and Yankees,'' says Morley, who, before he moved to Gilford served more than 40 years as a Methodist minister in the rural eastern Maine town of Orrington, not far from Bangor .
A high school dropout who went to work at the GE Foundry in Everett, Mass., right after World War II, Morley had eight older brothers and weighed only 115 pounds when he joined in U.S. Air Force in 1950, shortly after the Korean War broke out.
He says that his earliest memories of Fenway Park are from 1939, Ted Williams' rookie year, before the bullpens were built in front of right field stands and he always recalls the incredible green of the park when he first entered it.
''You could watch Tex Hughson warming up right in front of you in the seats. I used to take my shoebox right into Kenmore Square and onto what is now Yawkey Way and set up there and start shining shoes during the Sunday doubleheaders. At the end of the day I'd come home with $10 for the family. We could really use the money then, although later we got to be pretty prosperous ,'' says Morley, who added that a good time to work his way into Fenway Park without paying admission was during the National Anthem — when the ushers and police were distracted.
He said that a police officer once caught him going through the turnstile but other than that one time he always made it into the park.
Morley says the best place to watch a game was from the bleachers and that he got to see many of the greats over the years, like Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra, who liked to fool around and kept up continual chatter with the fans.
''DiMaggio was different. He was very quiet and serious and didn't take part in any horseplay. In between innings he'd sit in the dugout and have a cigarette and a cup of coffee'' Morley remembers.
He also remembered Williams for his temper and his feuding with the fans, but also as the most feared hitter of his era and perhaps of all time.
''He had a temper and once during batting practice threw his bat and it lodged way up in the batting cage. Manager Joe Cronin made him climb up the cage and bring it down,'' says Morley.
But as much as he liked the Red Sox his real favorites were the Boston Braves, who moved to Milwaukee in 1953 after having been a fixture in Boston for over 75 years.
''I loved the Braves' game and watching Warren Spahn and his high leg kick. I remember Sam Jethroe, the first black ballplayer in Boston.'' says Morley, who says that the Red Sox were more popular with the Irish Catholic population of Boston while the Braves seemed to have a larger following among Protestants.
He said that there was real excitement in Boston during 1948 when the Braves won the National League pennant and the Red Sox tied with the Cleveland Indians for first place and the prospect of Subway Series loomed. But the Red Sox lost the playoff game in Fenway Park 8-3 to the Indians when Lou Boudreau, the Cleveland shortstop and player-manager, hit a pair of home runs.
Morley, who served in the Air Force and played as a drummer in bands at a number of Air Force bases in the west, recalls that he and a trumpet and sax player once landed a gig in Las Vegas at $25 a man..
For whatever reason the gig was raided and while the trumpet and sax player were able to make it out the door with their instruments, he was left behind with his mother of pearl Air Force drums and was arrested, an event which caused his commanding officer to take away two of his stripes.
He later won those stripes back and after he was honorably discharged in 1954, returned to the Boston area, where he met his wife to be while attending a service at a Methodist Church.
''I always had a love for the church but didn't have an education. But the Methodist Church needed ministers in rural areas and worked with me and sent me to a theological school in Bangor, Maine. It was tough because we had to learn Greek and Hebrew and I wasn't very good at them. Summers I'd go the theology school in Boston and by 1968 was a full minister,'' says Morley.
Morley, who is currently undergoing chemotherapy for cancer and has diabetes, says that he's taking one day at a time and enjoying life and getting lots of fresh air and eating a healthy diet as he prepares for tonight's broadcast challenge.
''I'm going to give it a try. Win, lose or draw, it's been a great experience.''
CAPTION SLUGGED MORLEY
The Rev. William Morley, a retired Methodist minister from Gilford, still keeps up with his drum playing. He is one of 30 who was called back to Fenway Park for a second audition tonight as the new public address announcer for the Boston Red Sox. (Roger Amsden/for The Laconia Daily Sun)
Last Updated on Wednesday, 06 February 2013 03:49
Hits: 413
Gilford's Eastman promoted by Fish & Game
CONCORD — Lt. Michael Eastman of Gilford was recently tapped as the new district chief for the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department's Law Enforcement seacoast area district (District 6). Former chief Lt. Jeffrey Marston retired in 2012.
A conservation officer with Fish and Game for the past 12 years, Eastman was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and assumed his new duties on January 11. In his new role, he supervises a working unit of Conservation Officers assigned to Fish and Game's District Six Coastal Patrol areas, which include several southeastern New Hampshire towns and the entire New Hampshire coastline. In addition to the enforcement of Fish and Game laws and regulations, Eastman administers vital cooperative federal-state coastal enforcement programs related to the Joint Enforcement Agreement and Atlantic States Marine Fishery Commission initiatives.
"We consider ourselves fortunate that Lieutenant Eastman has decided to take on this exciting challenge," said Fish and Game Law Enforcement Chief Martin Garabedian. "He will actively work to maintain public and professional relationships throughout New Hampshire's seacoast that are crucial in our success as a wildlife agency."
Eastman graduated from Unity College in 1998 with a BS in Environmental Studies with an emphasis in Conservation Law Enforcement. He began his law enforcement career with the Laconia Police Department, where he worked for two years before joining Fish and Game. His primary Fish and Game patrol area was in the Lakes Region.
After successfully completed the intensive four-week Marine Law Enforcement Training Program conducted at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia, Eastman also logged many hours helping coastal officers enforce marine regulations.
Eastman has been a Field Training Officer, a background investigator, a member of the Advanced Search and Rescue Team, the Coastal Joint Enforcement Team, and the Fish and Game Dive Team. He earned the Lifesaving Congressional Award in 2007, the Looking Beyond the Traffic Stop Award presented by the New Hampshire Police Standards and Training Council in 2008, and he was honored as the 2008 Shikar-Safari International "Wildlife Officer of the Year."
"Eastman has demonstrated great success in the areas of major case investigations, OHRV/ATV accident investigations and search and rescue capabilities," said Garabedian, acknowledging Eastman's "six sense" for apprehending wildlife violators and other criminal activity.
Lt. Eastman resides in Gilford with his wife Serene and children Madison, Sydney and Morgan.
- ### -
A conservation officer with Fish and Game for the past 12 years, Eastman was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and assumed his new duties on January 11. In his new role, he supervises a working unit of Conservation Officers assigned to Fish and Game's District Six Coastal Patrol areas, which include several southeastern New Hampshire towns and the entire New Hampshire coastline. In addition to the enforcement of Fish and Game laws and regulations, Eastman administers vital cooperative federal-state coastal enforcement programs related to the Joint Enforcement Agreement and Atlantic States Marine Fishery Commission initiatives.
"We consider ourselves fortunate that Lieutenant Eastman has decided to take on this exciting challenge," said Fish and Game Law Enforcement Chief Martin Garabedian. "He will actively work to maintain public and professional relationships throughout New Hampshire's seacoast that are crucial in our success as a wildlife agency."
Eastman graduated from Unity College in 1998 with a BS in Environmental Studies with an emphasis in Conservation Law Enforcement. He began his law enforcement career with the Laconia Police Department, where he worked for two years before joining Fish and Game. His primary Fish and Game patrol area was in the Lakes Region.
After successfully completed the intensive four-week Marine Law Enforcement Training Program conducted at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia, Eastman also logged many hours helping coastal officers enforce marine regulations.
Eastman has been a Field Training Officer, a background investigator, a member of the Advanced Search and Rescue Team, the Coastal Joint Enforcement Team, and the Fish and Game Dive Team. He earned the Lifesaving Congressional Award in 2007, the Looking Beyond the Traffic Stop Award presented by the New Hampshire Police Standards and Training Council in 2008, and he was honored as the 2008 Shikar-Safari International "Wildlife Officer of the Year."
"Eastman has demonstrated great success in the areas of major case investigations, OHRV/ATV accident investigations and search and rescue capabilities," said Garabedian, acknowledging Eastman's "six sense" for apprehending wildlife violators and other criminal activity.
Lt. Eastman resides in Gilford with his wife Serene and children Madison, Sydney and Morgan.
- ### -
Last Updated on Tuesday, 05 February 2013 04:29
Hits: 68
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