A Fairbanks judge fined longtime musher and four-time Iditarod winner Jeff King $4,750 Friday for poaching a moose inside Denali National Park and Preserve.
Magistrate Judge John Roberts also put King on probation for a year but said the probation would end once the fine was paid. King said the fine would be paid Friday, according to assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Cooper.
King killed the bull moose 600 feet inside Denali's northern boundary in September 2007. He said the area in the park was not clearly marked and he didn't know he was hunting illegally, but the judge didn't buy his defense.
Only federally qualified subsistence users, which King is not, are allowed to hunt within park boundaries.King has lived in Denali Park for more than 30 years and hunted in an area near the park boundary for the last nine years.
Several prominent Alaskans and nonprofits wrote letters to the judge on behalf of King, including U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
King had faced a possible six months in prison for the crime.
Anchorage Daily News