Owner Of Windy Hills Outpost Sentenced For Unlawful Sale Of Migratory Waterfowl

United States Attorney Brendan V. Johnson announced that a Pennsylvania man, convicted of the Unlawful Sale of Migratory Waterfowl, was sentenced on April 29, 2013, by US District Judge Charles B. Kornmann. Mike Bishop, age 46, was sentenced to 11 months in custody; $7,200 in restitution (joint and several with co-defendants) to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for the cost of the Services’ undercover hunt; $3,450 in restitution to South Dakota State Game, Fish and Parks Department for the illegally taking of State of South Dakota waterfowl; and a $100 assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund. 

Bishop, the owner of Windy Hills Outpost, was indicted in April 2012 for Conspiracy to Violate the Lacey Act, Failure to Lawfully Tag Migratory Birds, the Sale and Possession of Wildlife in Violation of Migratory Bird Act, and False Labeling on Waterfowl Tags. He pled guilty to a Superseding Information charging him with the Unlawful Sale of Migratory Waterfowl on April 29, 2013.

The conviction stems from incidents that occurred in the fall of 2008 and 2009, in Marshall County, when Bishop and others who worked for Bishop as guides, unlawfully provided migratory waterfowl to undercover US Fish and Wildlife Service officers for meals at the lodge before the undercover officers had even gone hunting. Additionally, the officers observed Bishop and his guides take ducks and geese that were not lawfully tagged, shoot ducks over the possession limit, guide hunters who did not have valid hunting licenses, and alter dates on tags to show the migratory birds were taken on a series of days and not on a single day.

The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Assistant US Attorney Mikal Hanson prosecuted the case. 

Bishop will report to the United States Marshal’s Service on May 28, 2013, to begin serving his sentence.