3 accused of trespassing to collect elk antlers at Hanford

RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) - Three men have been accused of trespassing to collect deer and elk antlers on the Hanford nuclear reservation.

The Tri-City Herald reports Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife officers received a tip in February that people were trespassing on federal land to collect antlers shed by the animals near the Columbia River.

The nuclear reservation, where plutonium was produced for the nation's nuclear weapons program, is closed to the public while work continues to cleanup radioactive contamination and other toxins.

Officers say they observed Daniel Briant Charboneau of Pasco, Stephen Michael Dearinger Jr. of Kennewick, and Isaac Hampton Case of Pasco collecting antlers at Hanford from a boat on the Columbia River.

All three are charged with unlawful collecting of wildlife parts from property belonging to another.