Alaska Guide Pleads Guilty To Charges Of Herding Bears For Clients

Apologies for not sharing this news sooner, but earlier this month a Fairbanks hunting guide pleaded guilty to charges he tried to herd bears closer to his clients on remote Alaska hunts. Among the man’s sentence was forfeiting his master guide’s license for life:

Here’s more from the Associated Press:

Brian Simpson of Fairbanks, operating as Wittrock Outfitters, also was fined $35,000 and sentenced to a year of probation Thursday in Nome District Court. He also was ordered to pay $2,600 in restitution for the killing of two grizzly bears.

In a plea deal, Simpson pleaded guilty to two counts of “aiding in the commission of a violation” for using his employees to turn bears toward his hunting clients. He also pleaded guilty to three counts of guiding within the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, where hunting is allowed but guiding without a federal permit is not. 

The illegal actions took place on the Seward Peninsula north of Nome.