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Hunting And The Suburbs
By admin | April 24, 2008
All of us are aware that the suburbs are growing while the central cores of most of our larger cities are dying. This growth of the suburbs means that land that was formerly available for wildlife and/or farming has disappeared at an alarming rate. We see the results of this growth all the time when people report bears, mountain lions, or coyotes in their yards. Another result of this growth has been increasing conflict between suburban residents and hunters in the town of Sherwood, Oregon. Sherwood is about 25 miles from downtown Portland, Oregon. It used to be a farming town, but now it’s a bedroom suburb of Portland.
At the heart of the current conflict are city residents who live on the fringes of Sherwood and are saying that during duck hunting season (October through January) they hear shotgun blasts and find empty shells in their backyards. These urban residents are upset and want the duck hunting to stop. The farmer that owns the land that is being hunted on says that his family has been hunting on the land for generations and nobody is going to stop him.
To be fair, if people really are finding empty shotgun shells in their backyards, that is not right. If what the residents are saying is true, then hunters are litterbugs and are shooting at ducks from people’s yards. Neither of which is too likely. What is probably happening is that the residents are trying to protect their families, so they are willing to say anything. If people’s kids are outside and they her gunfire, they will probably say that their kids almost got shot.
Residents of Sherwood are looking to the state of Oregon and the county for help. The State of Oregon has been a pioneer when it comes to land use planning. Every municipality in the state has its own urban growth boundary. All building must take place within this boundary.
The residents who are complaining have the boundary line running next to their yards. The area where the duck hunting is taking place is just outside of the city limits, so it is outside of this growth line, in the country. County commissioners are frustrated by an Oregon law that mentions “hunting and fishing preserves”. Unfortunately, when the lawmakers passed the hunting regulations, they forgot to mention what exactly makes up one of these “preserves”. This leaves the commissioners unable to step in on the resident’s behalf, when the state is so vague.
. As is often the case in a conflict such as this, it sounds like both sides may be exaggerating. Residents say that the farmer is running a hunting club. This would be illegal since the farmer doesn’t have a business license. The farmer says that residents knew that duck hunting was taking place in the field when they bought their houses.
The curious thing is; for some reason, the farmer sold the land to the developer to start all this. Did he forget to tell the developer about the duck hunting? Are the city dwellers being extra protective of their children?
It is important not to forget that as hunters we have to be careful when hunting close to developed areas. This means not taking some shots, but remember, people will freak out if buckshot falls within 200yds of their kids.
The bottom line is that both sides are right and both sides are wrong, so it sounds like a compromise is in order. The conflict in Oregon is surely being played out in many other states, especially those with lax planning laws that allow suburbs to gobble up all the land they want. One of the county commissioners in Oregon summed up the situation in Sherwood best when he said,” people need to be tolerant of other people’s activities”.
Craig Stanford is a city boy and so he hasn’t been able to do as much hunting as he would like to. His nephew hunted with his grandfather for almost 15 years, so Craig learned a lot about hunting by listening to their stories. He owns the “Hunting Guide” at
http://online-hunting-info.com
Tags: duck-hunting, hunting
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