A St. John, N.D., man has lost his hunting privileges for a year after being convicted of hunting waterfowl in Kellys Slough National Wildlife Refuge west of Grand Forks.
Kasey Abrahamson, 20, also was ordered to pay $225 in fines and court costs.
According to court records, Abrahamson was cited Oct. 1 after a refuge manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Devils Lake contacted Gary Rankin, district game warden for the Game and Fish Department in Larimore, N.D., about a report of three people hunting on the refuge.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages Kellys Slough NWR, which is closed to hunting.
Responding to the report, Rankin observed three people on the west side of the main refuge pool. They had duck decoys set in the water and were hidden in vegetation near the decoys.
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Rankin watched two of the people shoot numerous times, observing them retrieve three birds. The third person was photographing the other two and did not have a firearm, court records show.
Rankin cited Abrahamson and the other hunter, Cole Miller, 21, Grand Forks, when they returned to their vehicle with six ducks at the end of shooting hours. Rankin issued a warning to the photographer who wasn't carrying a gun, but the man wasn't cited.
Miller also lost his hunting privileges for a year and was ordered to pay $225 in fines and court costs. However, he received a deferred imposition of sentence, which means the charges will be cleared from his record if he has no further violations in the next year.
