Letter to the Editor: Off-Islanders pose the biggest threat in hunting

Published 12:31 pm Tuesday, October 12, 2010

I am a past member of the Sportsmen’s Club and plan to take a deer on my own property this fall. I also live very near Island Center Forest (ICF) and walk there often. As a result, I understand why Islanders are concerned about hunting in ICF. 

In my experience, the greatest danger is due to hunters coming from off-Island. Few of them are familiar with ICF, and fewer still know know the locations of the houses surrounding the forest. I have seen off-Island hunters studying a map of ICF spread on the hood of their truck. Anyone who needs a map to navigate in ICF should not be hunting there. The distances are too small, the houses too near; never mind the walkers and runners on the trails.

Once, when I tried to talk to some off-Island hunters about this, they brushed me off, saying they could see the houses (not true), and, besides, 12-gauge slugs do not carry far. These responses were not reassuring. 

There is no fence or other marker separating ICF from surrounding private properties. You can be a mere 100 feet from many houses and still not be able to see them. Hunters need to know in advance where the houses are, and hunters need to know exactly where they are in the ICF and in relation to its boundaries. It is possible, indeed, probable that Island hunters have this kind of knowledge. It is unlikely in the extreme that off-Island hunters will.

I know about the history of the transfer, when ICF went from state to county ownership. I was in on the first citizen meetings, one of which occurred in my living room. And I know about the deal that was struck when the county took on ICF — that hunting would be allowed to continue. I understand about sticking to a deal.  But reasonable concessions are not a threat to the Sportsmen’s Club; they are in its best interests.

If a non-hunter were to be shot by a hunter in ICF, hunting would end there, deal or no deal. You know that’s true. If you doubt it, then you don’t know Vashon.

— Jack Stewart