Hunting And The Suburbs

I've read in the paper that people are seeing bear, mountain lions and deer in their yards. I've even read about coyotes carrying away small pets out of people's yards! All of the articles that I‘ve read about these problems have blamed the growth of our cities and suburbs. As most of us have seen, our cities and suburbs are gobbling up more land almost everyday. This growth has caused trouble in the town of Sherwood, Oregon. Sherwood is about 25 miles from Portland. A few short years ago it was a typical farming town, but now it could be called a suburb of Portland. The growth of this suburb has caused a war of words between residents of Sherwood and local hunters.

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. The suburbanites are mad and are trying to stop the duck hunting next to their homes. 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's more likely is that the residents are being extra protective of their kids, so they're exaggerating. If buckshot is falls anywhere in their neighborhoods, they're probably going to say that they're kids had a narrow escape.

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. Each city has its own 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 counly. 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; the farmer was the one who sold the land for development in the first place. Did he forget to tell the developer about the duck hunting? Are the residents being overprotective of their kids?

We have to remember that if we are hunting near a suburb, we need to pickup our trash and aim our guns away from any development. 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".

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