Guntroll - your words are my sentiments exactly.

I especially like the part about being nervous around DODW filed officers. I know I am. I was checked about 9 years ago and had left my current licenses in camp - I had not thrown away my previous years license and grabbed that one by accident. The field officer I dealt with that day was really cool. He had me unload my gun and walk back to camp (I was down a long trail with no ATV in those days). He stayed to check out a group of 5 non-English speaking individiauls who, if they weren't out-right poaching, were being reckless with their ATV's and hunting practices. I would have been totally screwed if I had actually shot an animal! The filed officer arrived at my camp about 10 minutes after me and I showed him my VALID hunting licenses. Case closed. I haven't had any violations since, but it still spooks me every time because the filed officers I've dealt with during hunting & fishing season since then have been outright hostile.

As far as poachers, I get the DOW newsletter eMailed to me and I see accounts of poachers mentioned regularly. Their penalties (when caught) are not nearly severe enough.