DNR actively encourages the public to be on the lookout for wildlife and conservation crimes and report them to authorities. It’s incredibly discouraging to those of us who stick our necks out and report them when nothing of consequence is done about it.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nI made it very clear to Sharon that I disagree with her decision to not cite the driver but in the end I respect the decision that she made. After such an extensive discussion with her I’m convinced that she made her decision thoughtfully and with the intention at least of obtaining the best outcome possible.<\/p>\n
Sharon impressed me and I’m not easily impressed. In my 33 years as a teacher in public high schools I’ve had a number of encounters with law enforcement regarding my students and more than once I’ve seen the tendency for officers to be defensive and less than forthcoming about their decisions, motivations and actions.<\/p>\n
Sharon was exactly the opposite. Agree with her decision or not (and I do not) she’s truly a professional and this bird photographer wishes more officers were like her.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Note: One of my concerns about the decision to not cite the driver was the strong possibility that it had been made after undue political or community “influence”. Farmington is an affluent and close knit community where many influential residents interact regularly with political and religious leaders so I was suspicious that inappropriate pressures might have influenced Sharon’s decision. For example, a father calling someone with “influence” and asking for a favor.<\/em><\/p>\nBut Sharon assured me that the decision was hers and hers alone and I believe her.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Late addendum: Friend Neil Rossmiller made this insightful comment on my link to this post on Facebook. I think it’s interesting enough to share here.<\/em><\/p>\n\n- “”the father\u2019s reaction to what his son had done was appropriate.” Really? Really? <\/em>
\nHis son has a fairly new model Jeep with a high lift jack, a winch, and a high rise skid bumper for plowing down vegetation and Dads reaction was appropriate. Dad is more culpable than the 16 year old. <\/em>
\nSharon, if you’re listening, I’m disappointed with your decision.”<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I first reported this unfortunate incident six days ago I told my readers the outcome would be one thing but it turned out to be something else. I feel I need to set the record straight with my readers.<\/p>\n
Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[334,16,2782],"tags":[1008,5002,5003,5001],"class_list":["post-82793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds","category-photography-ethics","category-farmington-bay-waterfowl-management-area","tag-farmington-bay-waterfowl-management-area","tag-farmington-high-school","tag-illegal-activities","tag-ohv-trail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/illegal-jeep-at-farmington-1069-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-lxn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/illegal-jeep-at-farmington-1069-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"illegal-jeep-at-farmington-1069-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n