Conservation officers, rather than working for the natural resources department, are part of the state police. But limited by resources, human victim cases had priority, according to Randy Henry, staff writer for Oregon Wildlife. The frustration of cases never going to court for lack of evidence hurt. The lab has become an international service provider. African elephant ivory is illegal.
Illegal importers try to pass it off as a different kind of ivory.
Ashland scientists developed a way to distinguish different kinds. Working with Oregon fish and wildlife biologists, they now have a library of tissue and blood samples to be identified by species, eventually even to individual animals. These forensic investigations can exonerate as well as convict. A hunter was accused of poaching a mountain goat. He claimed the meat was from a blacktail deer that he'd taken legally.