Hide Article Text (OCR)
rieller:tNOVICETRACKERS,organized ingroups of three, follow practice trails laid by instructors. An expert tracker can follow a sign as quickly as his or her quarry left it behind. Joel Hardin, far left, looks on.ani ' * ; : 5- 'V lt;* %wm '4? *:—i-: .~. V ---faVW,Nicholas Ledden photos/Daily Inter LakeFROM LEFT, Chuck Bowers of the Lake County Search and Rescue team, Jordan White, coordinator of Flathead County Search and Rescue, and Dan Brister of Lake County look for footprints* in a grass field in Columbia Falls. The trackers-in-training were attending a three-day class put on by expert tracker Joel Hardin, who left them a difficult trail to follow. Trackers carry walking sticks with two movable bands. The distance between the bands is a measure of a footprint’s length; the distance from the second band to the stick’s tip measures the length of a stride.Expert tracker teaches local searchersBy NICHOLAS LEDDEN The Daily Inter LakeA patch of compressed grassor a curved indentation in the ground — these are two of the less subtle clues that tell a trained tracker when, how fast and in what direction a person has passed.Bruised vegetation, scattered dirt, scuff marks or even an overturned leaf are meaningful to the tracker’s eye because every movement of man through nature leaves a sign, said expert tracker Joel Hardin of Joel Hardin Professional Tracking Services.Hardin’s company travels the country teaching search-and-rescue teams, law enforcement agencies, and military units how to identify and follow signs left by passing humans.A professional tracker for the last 25 years, Hardin was in Columbia Falls last weekend to conduct tracking classes for about 35 members of the Flathead County, North Valley and Lake County search-and-rescue teams.“I want them to go to any incident where people have been afoot and find physical evidence of a particular person,” said Hardin, a fonner tracker for the U.S. Border Patrol. “And from thatphysical evidence I want themto determine where that person went and where they are going.”A master tracker can not only follow a person’s trail, but also infer that person’s emotional state. Hardin said. Large distances between footprints and deep impressions mean the subject was running, which could imply fear or anger. A steady, measured tread implies purpose or despondency.“With this, you consider that every action somebody makes can be interpreted,” said Jordan White, Flathead County Search and Rescue coordinator. Trackers have been used to successfully conclude several area rescue missions, he said.Search-and-rescue personnel and law enforcement agencies tend to tackle similar problems from different perspectives, Hardin said.When someone gets lost in the woods, search-and-rescue personnel are trained to find the missing person; police officers also need to determine whether or not a crime has been committed, he said.And police are beginning to find trackers an important resource in criminal investigations, according to tracking instructor Kathy Decker, a former detective with the King County, Wash., Sheriffs Office.A few years ago, Decker cameout of a lecture on the uses ofA RED RIBBON marks the beginning of a training trail, instructors started each tracking team with a cleat outline of the footprints they would be following. Trackers draw rather than photograph the sign they follow because it leaves a more indelible imprint on the brain. Blue plastic marksthe position of the next footfall.tracking for law enforcement purposes “just blown away.” she said.“I didn’t realize that all those times I’d been walking over clues,” said Decker, recalling two recent instances in which her tracking skill helped break cases. One involved following a 4-month-old trail to what investigators came to believe was a murder weapon: the second involved tracking the path of asuspect investigators believed dropped a key piece of evidence, the recovery of which led to conclusive DNA evidence.Flathead County Sheriffs Detective Pat Walsh, who attended the class, said trained trackers from the search-and-rescue teams will assist investigators when tracking skills are needed at crime scenes.Sometimes trackers are called in to determine whether a crime scene even exists or to round out the facts surrounding an accident.When the bodies of a Missoula couple were found frozen in the ice off Wild Horse Island in January, trackers with Lake County Search and Rescue team were asked to determine whether the couple was en route to the island or leaving, according to search and rescue team member Frankie Brown, who was attending his fourth tracking class with Hardin.No tracks were found, leading investigators to conclude the couple was just arriving. Their canoe was found nearby, and no foul play was suspected.If a body is found in the woods, trackers can tell investigators how the person got there and whether that person was accompanied by anybody else, plus reconstruct what happened,See READING on Page A 7
Newspaper Details
Kalispell Daily Inter Lake
Kalispell, Montana, US
Sat, Apr 26, 2008
Page 53
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
WI, USA 28 Mar 2023
Other Publications Near Kalispell, Montana
The Kalispell Bee
Daily Inter Lake
Kalispell Inter Lake
Kalispell Daily Inter Lake
