Portage man charged in illegal elk shooting in Columbia County
Chase Steinhoff, 24, of Portage has been charged with illegally shooting a bull elk last fall in Columbia County.
Steinhoff faces a Class U misdemeanor for killing the animal, according to court records.
The incident took place on private land at 7 a.m. Nov. 20, opening day of the 2021 Wisconsin gun deer hunting season.
An initial appearance in the case is scheduled for 10:45 a.m. Wednesday at the Columbia County courthouse.
Notably, the Columbia County district attorney is pursuing the illegal shooting as a criminal case. Most such wildlife killings are civil cases.
If convicted, Steinhoff faces a fine of from $1,000 to $15,000, up to six months in jail and a five-year revocation of hunting and fishing privileges, according to the Department of Natural Resources.
State conservation wardens confiscated Steinhoff's rifle and recovered a bullet from the elk. The elk's body is being held as evidence.
The bull had been sighted often in Columbia County in the weeks leading up to the gun deer season. It was a 4-year-old from the state's central elk herd, according to DNR wildlife biologists who identified the animal by numbered tags in its ears.
Wisconsin has a limited elk hunt in the northern elk range, but elk are protected year-round in the rest of the state, including Columbia County.
The Columbia County incident makes the fourth consecutive Wisconsin gun deer hunting season in which at least one elk has been illegally killed in the state.
As it has for many years, the DNR released educational materials before the 2021 gun deer season to help hunters identify and avoid shooting elk.