“If I shoot a tin can in my back yard, I’m in violation of the law. But I can let go with birdshot that travels a 100 yards as long as I’m on the river? Something’s wrong with this equation.”
“Maybe we should all go out on the river and have target practice!”
So went a conversation, by turns ironic but also groping for solutions, between neighbors Jerry Dunklee and Chris Ozyck on the Tuesday night, at the Quinnipiac River Community Group’s regular meeting at the Waucoma Yacht Club.
The subject: How, as a community, to respond to an incident Saturday morning in which duck hunters were doing business in the Fargeorge Nature Preserve along the river until state agents, alerted by neighbors, stopped them. Neighbors Tuesday night discussed how to address or change a potentially lethal “black hole,” where federal regulations permit bird hunting in the crowded area between the Grand Avenue Bridge and the I‑91 overpass.
Although the duck and geese hunting season officially ended on Saturday, David Zakur, one of the attendees, reported that he had noticed a kayak-borne man in camouflage at the marsh on Tuesday.
Zakur expressed the sentiment of the group, which was not anti-hunting but anti-hunting in a populous area. “I think it’s cool they use the river to hunt,” he said. “Only they should do it much farther north in the marsh.”
Due to cold weather and late notice not a lot of people flocked (!) to the QRCG meeting at the Waucoma Yacht Club. Still by the measure of the extended discussion based on the story on this site, the consensus at the meeting was that some concerted community action be taken.
But what?
In the end, Chris Ozyck was charged to write a letter to New Haven State Rep. Robert Megna, who had been instrumental in alerting DEP staffers to the hunters.
The letter is to express the broad consensus of area residents that no hunting should be allowed in the populous areas near the water, but farther north in the marsh. Since the city has no jurisdiction as long as hunters are on the water and 250 feet from structures and shoot away from them, Megna is also being asked to explore legal or legislative options.
Dunklee said the road may be long, but “federal laws don’t always trump those of the city.”
Ozyck said he also intends to write to Chris Randall, the president of the New Haven Land Trust, requesting “No Hunting” or “No Trespassing” signs be placed on the water side of the Fargeorge Preserve. The hunters in question noticed no signs and therefore went ashore. Currently there are warning signs only on the land access.
Zakur asked that the letter to Megna suggest that any added signs be effective, yet inconspicuous.
The NHI has been a great resource for good conversation on the hunting in or near the New Haven Land Trust Preserve and the Quinnipiac estuary. In general I support hunting and the role hunters play in conservation. I've learned more about the difference between shot and bullets, which is reassuring. I think we can all agree not many people like to be woken to the sounds of gunfire. Besides the nature preserve along this stretch of the river is a city park with a soon to be build playground. Often issues like this come down to; yes, you have the right to... but common decency dictates otherwise.