The most important beginning step is to obey the hunting laws in your area yourself. Whether you agree with them or not, the game laws are on the books for a reason. You can get an overview of those laws with most state hunting regulations digests. For further details, visit the local courthouse and also search the state’s game department’s Web site. If you don’t agree with a game law, work to change it. Don't ignore it or try to bend the rules or you'll soon find yourself on the wrong side of the courtroom or facing a stiff game law violation fine.

Next, work with those who enforce the hunting laws. Contact and get to know your local conservation officer or game warden. You’ve hired these law enforcement officers to enforce game laws  and they should be working for you. If you are having poacher problems or hear suspicious shots during darkness, report the information promptly. The best aid in helping law enforcement officers make an arrest is timely information. It also pays to invite C.O.s to your property for a tour, and to let them know where any problems like trespassers are entering and exiting your property.
You are working hard to improve your hunting land and local wildlife populations, why let someone steal your results?

Block the View
One of the first and most important steps for making any property more poacher proof is to prevent others from seeing what’s on your property. Easy views from nearby roadways, trails, railroad tracks, and other public areas generally lead to unwanted problems on private property. When someone spots a big buck on your property, it only leads to increased desire. And while poaching and trespassing are crimes, laws tend to only guide those who follow them. If a poacher or thief sees something desirable on your property, it only increases the chances that they’ll come after it. And since most landowners have other jobs from 8-5 Monday through Friday, or live elsewhere and only visit on weekends, it’s easy to see that poachers have many hours and days to come calling.

Planting trees along public roads can prevent views—and possibly poaching problems—on private property.

As a rule, if they don’t see it, they won’t steal it. The best route to preventing game and property thefts is to block the view onto your property from public areas.
There are several ways to block views. Planting fast growing trees like white pines, poplar, spruce, and cedars, or creating dense hedges, work to stop prying eyes from discovering an opportunity. Tall grasses and other plants that grow into a screen can also be planted along roads and trails. For guidelines on what to plant, and a source for the plants, check with your state’s forestry department. In Iowa, for example, the Department of Natural Resources Forestry Division sells 100 nannyberry bushes that are approximately 24 inches tall for $45. When planted approximately 1 yard apart, these grow into a dense screen of leaves and limbs that will be 10 to 15 feet tall and nearly impossible to see through after a few years of good growth. And for concerns about seeing through after leaves drop in the fall, you can plant any trees and shrubs in a staggered pattern to create a better barrier to viewing.
While I’ve seen programs encouraging the planting of corn and other tall crops, the problem here could be a food source that actually brings wildlife closer to trails and roads. Avoid this situation when possible. Determine from the highway and utility departments what and where you can plant along roads and power lines.

One other more expensive route that some landowners have also undertaken to prevent prying eyes is high fencing or using a standard 4-foot tall woven wire fence placed on taller poles and set about 5 or 6 feet above ground. This can be planted with vines like honeysuckle or trumpeter vines that will quickly create a dense screen. The open bottom of a fence installed in this manner also permits easy passage by wildlife under the fence.

You will have to drive along adjacent roads and walk trails to see open areas that permit viewing onto your property, and determine what will provide the best screen. Keep in mind that fall is when most poaching is committed, and this is when many species of vegetation drop their leaves. Plan—and plant— accordingly.

Attention catching signs with clear wording is a good first step to preventing—or discouraging—poachers.

Block the Access
After a poacher spots a heavy antlered buck on your property, the next apparent step to them is often to simply come and get it. In many cases they simply drive onto a parcel, shoot, load and drive off. It can happen that fast. The solution: create obstacles to entry.
Poachers are lazy lawbreakers, and that’s why they poach. If they can’t drive onto your land, you’ve often won what many poachers see as a game. Locked gates, deep ditches, log barriers and tall mounds of dirt have been used effectively to stop poachers at the road’s edge. If they can’t easily come onto your property, they will have to work to steal. Poachers hate working and they hate an increased chance of being caught. Many poachers are simply road hunters looking for an opportunity to shoot from the public road surface.
Locked gates are the preferred choice of many to secure a property. A problem arises, however, when locked gates are left wide open only when someone is in the hunting camp or hunting on the property. Make it a point to close all gates behind you when you hunt behind them. It takes time but that’s often less time than you spent on the food plots and erecting treestands on the property. In many rural areas it’s the only way to increase the chance that you’ll have a trophy buck to hunt. And it keeps poachers guessing on whether you are present.

If you have roads and trails onto your property that you do not use, you can also hire an excavating company to haul and dump a load of dirt, or come and dig a deep ditch with a backhoe. Check with the highway department if barriers like these will be placed along public roads because some barriers could be illegal if placed on the right-of-way.

A quick and temporary fix is to saw and fell a few trees into a route. And if you plan to permanently retire the road, consider planting it full of trees and shrubs.
Another “mental barrier” that works in some areas for some landowners and hunters is “NO TRESPASSING” signs. There are several styles and various wording options, but these often convey the message to keep off and keep out. Some states also set specific guidelines about how, where, and what size sign must be used. Check the legal guidelines if you want poachers arrested and prosecuted.
When you have questions about trespassers, you can also work with sheriff’s departments and constables to discover what you can do, and what will happen when someone is caught. The guidelines and punishments vary widely.

If a trespasser is caught on your property, be prepared to back up the charges. Many poachers expect a slap on the hand by the court system, so you might have to become involved to make the punishment have enough bite to deter future trespassing. This also puts other trespassers and poachers on notice that you take their crimes seriously.  

A sturdy gate and a bold POSTED sign will deter many poachers because they’ll have to work to steal your wildlife.

Block the Details
Unfortunately, one of the first things that many hunters do after killing a big trophy caliber buck is to load it in the back of a pickup truck and parade it around the local town with stops at gas stations, restaurants, sporting good stores, meat processing plants and other very public locations. This is a bad idea.
You are broadcasting the news far and wide about the caliber of game animals that live on or frequent your property or hunting site. Poachers are listening, taking notes, and making plans. You should keep the kill of any trophy as a celebration between you and family members or fellow hunters on the property. Poachers and game thieves are counting on you to publicly display big bucks. If they don’t know, they won’t go —to your property.

As a rule you should also not enter big buck contests or place images in local magazines and newspapers. This exposure only increases attention and the desire of thieves.
If the buck that drops in your sights is a real trophy of a lifetime, you might inquire with your taxidermist about security measures. In recent times more and more taxidermy shops have been the targets of break-ins by thieves, and customer’s trophies have been stolen. Some game thieves will stop at nothing to steal your hard-won trophy.
Poachers can be stopped or deterred. You have to think smart, make plans, and work to stop them. Obey the laws and set good examples for young and new hunters to keep them on the path as law abiding hunters. You’ll be glad you did. X

Michael D. Faw was a conservation officer or game warden in the Southeast for nearly a decade and won awards and recognition for his tireless efforts to stop or arrest poachers.