Alaska: Man Accused of Illegally Trading Moose Meat for Firewood
January 23rd, 2012Via: News Miner:
The Fairbanks man who is accused of illegally trading moose meat for firewood is taking his case to court.
Chad Gerondale, 41, has hired well-known Fairbanks attorney Bill Satterberg to represent him in the “meat for heat” case, as it has been dubbed by online spectators.
“I’ve got a lot to say about it but (Satterberg) told me not to,” Gerondale told the News-Miner Tuesday morning when he returned phone messages left during the weekend.
Alaska Wildlife Troopers last week issued Gerondale a summons to appear in court on Feb. 3 to be arraigned on a misdemeanor charge of illegal barter of game meat. Troopers issued a news release Friday stating Gerondale had been cited for agreeing to trade 125 pounds of moose meat for two cords of firewood.
Buying, selling or bartering of game meat, except snowshoe hares, is illegal. The one exception is caribou meat in northern and western Alaska (units 22-26) may be bartered, but the meat cannot be taken out of those units.
Gerondale allegedly offered to swap moose meat for firewood on the radio show, Tradio, which airs on KFAR 660 AM.
“The allegations are the guy was on Tradio and said, ‘I need some firewood and I’m willing to trade some moose meat,’” Satterberg said.
Trooper Ken Vanspronsen contacted Gerondale to make a deal and then showed up at his house and issued him a citation, Satterberg said.
For my benefit, no?
My neighbors paid $300 for one chord of seasoned, unsplit birch before thanksgiving. Ridiculous. Good thing it’s their backup and not their primary source of heat. The guy they bought it from is now charging $400 per chord. btw, by definition, a chord is 4’x 4′ x 8′ of cut, split and tightly stacked wood.
It’s been cold here (minus twenties at night) without a lot of snow in our area so there is a lot of energy consumption for heat right now. My heat bill alone for 750 square feet is running $330/month. If it weren’t for charity I would have no heat right now.
Now being in that position, I can certainly understand that guy swapping moose for fire wood. Life or death drives.difficult.survival decisions.
BTW, if the guy were in a starvation situation, it is legal for him to shoot a moose out of season. Alaska is not like the rest of the world and cannot be thought of as status quo. I live here now so I am learning that from experience.
I’m not condoning what the guy did but I am not condemning him either. Realistically, neither was the cop. Cops can’t wink at indiscreet law violations and tradeo is Alaska’ ebay and craigslist combined with a huge listening audience.
I didn’t learn much from my dad, but I did learn a few things.
One of them was to never wind up broke in a place where you can very easily freeze to death.
He’s from Wisconsin and people who couldn’t pay for heating oil routinely froze to death there.
It’s one of the earliest memories I have of things he said to me, and he never stopped saying it.
He left Wisconsin over 50 years ago for California and never went back. He’s now in very deep financial trouble, and when I asked him how he was doing just a couple of days ago, he said, “Well, I won’t freeze to death.”
Good words to live by. Someday I hope to adopt them myself. This cabin we built was never supposed to be for winter occupancy. It was for vacations but unexpected unemployment for 15 months has altered the plans..I’ve learned that you don’t live here dependent on electricity for heating. I’ve also learned the importance of burying the water line before the ground freezes. wood or coal stove and male bonding with a pick and shovel will resolve those threats…when the ground thaws.
Your dad is a wise man…ahead if time.
Hey Kevin,
Maybe you could open a seperate stream called “The things we learned from our parents”- my Irish Catholic dad was without any emotional toolbag to deal with his wife, eight kids, and life in general. He was floundering in this vast turbulent sea of life. One thing I remember him saying was “Hungry pigs get fat…greedy pigs get slaughtered.” Since then it has helped me identify the greedy pigs…so I finally lost count and left the U.S. Ha ha!
As soon as you cross the state line, it is clear that California has a larger than average homeless population. Rent is pretty bad, even in the inland empire of Los Angeles. I was fascinated with all the heroin lifestyle activity supposedly taking place in the woods outside of Santa Cruz, CA, which is known for surfing and now very expensive housing. You wouldn’t see the homeless when you go hiking because they stay hidden, but they bike into town to get supplies, and there are sometimes raids. Yet, where should addicts go to live outside? http://www.santacruz.com/news/2009/12/02/junkie_town_santa_cruzs_heroin_problem