Haines has been without a wildlife trooper for three months, and it doesn’t look like it will get a new one any time soon.

Wildlife trooper Ken VanSpronsen left the position in June, though trooper and borough officials won’t say whether he resigned or was fired.

Department of Public Safety deputy commissioner Terry Vrabec said the job isn’t being advertised. He characterized it as “vacant and closed.”

“It is my understanding that we want to (fill the position), but that all depends,” Vrabec said. “We are facing our challenges with funding.”

VanSpronsen worked the traditionally two-trooper post alone from when he started on the job in June 2012 until Sept. 2013, when trooper Drew Neason came on. It took the Department of Public Safety that long to hire a “blue shirt,” or regular trooper. (Wildlife troopers are also known as “brown shirts.”)

Now Neason is manning the post alone.

Major Bernard Chastain, deputy director of wildlife troopers, said Tuesday he couldn’t say when Haines might see a permanent wildlife trooper again.

“It’s based upon business needs, so as we have other vacancies come up we will evaluate those vacancies as compared to Haines,” Chastain said.

Right now, troopers from other towns – primarily Juneau – will travel to Haines to temporarily patrol or respond to a specific incident, Chastain said. He couldn’t specify how often out-of-town troopers are dispatched to Haines.

“It’s not unlike other communities around the state where there is no trooper stationed,” Chastain said.

Doug Olerud, who owns a local sporting goods shop, said it is “short-sighted” not to station a wildlife trooper in Haines. Customers come through the store and share anecdotes on what they see out on the river, and it’s not good, he said.

“The comments I hear the most are people taking over their limit, people keeping snagged fish, and also people using illegal methods as non-residents,” Olerud said. “If they know someone is there that could be writing them a ticket, they are more likely to follow the rules. But if people know there is no chance of them getting caught, you have a lot more violations.”

Getting a permanent wildlife trooper posted here again won’t entirely solve the problem, as they are usually more focused on policing commercial fishermen than sport fishermen, Olerud said.

“I think there is definitely a potential to have stuff that we might not locate if we were out there actually patrolling proactively,” said Sgt. Aaron Frenzel, a wildlife trooper stationed in Juneau who oversees the Haines post.

A wildlife trooper is temporarily stationed in Haines right now for moose hunting season, Frenzel said.

“It takes everybody to keep an eye out to protect that resource. It’s hard enough when we do have a trooper there to locate everything,” he said.

Frenzel said Neason, Haines’ patrol trooper, can sometimes help out responding to calls, but if it’s a significant case, Frenzel will send someone up or come up himself.

“We don’t like to take away from his main function,” Frenzel said.

Call 465-4000 to report wildlife violations.