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Navy, others cry fowl over proposed S.D. Bay hunting site
By Ed Zieralski, SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
March 16, 2003
Waterfowl hunters who held onto the slight hope that hunting would be permitted in the South Bay Unit of the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge can forget about it.
Mendel Stewart, San Diego National Wildlife Refuge manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said Friday that a hunting program is not part of the Comprehensive Conservation Plan, due out at the end of May.
"I don't think it's going to be," Stewart said. "The reason is it just doesn't fit. We got letters from the Navy and every organization around San Diego Bay saying that they were concerned about it from a safety standpoint. That was what killed it."
The fact that hunting won't be permitted at the refuge did not surprise Jack Bransford, president of the San Diego Fish and Wildlife Federation and a San Diego County Fish and Wildlife Commissioner.
"That's not unexpected," Bransford said. "We only held a slight glimmer of hope."
Bransford pointed out that the forces against hunting there far outnumbered the hunters who wanted access to a limited program.
"They had the louder guns," Bransford said.
But what Bransford and other proponents of hunting couldn't understand is the Navy's logic about ballistics. Stewart repeated Friday that the Navy had concerns about shotgun blasts under its planes, some of which, the Navy said, fly as low as 500 feet above San Diego Bay.
Shotgun blasts, depending on the shot number, typically range 50 to 80 yards – 150 feet to 240 feet.
"The planes he's talking about, the ones that are in the Iraqi desert right now, if that's such a safety concern, then our tax dollars aren't being spent on the right aircraft," Bransford said.
James A. Peugh, coastal and wetlands conservation chair for the San Diego Audubon Society, has never been in favor of allowing waterfowl hunting in San Diego Bay.
"The Salton Sea is such a rich resource and a much more compatible place for hunting," Peugh said. "The middle of San Diego Bay is not the right place to do that."
Stewart said any hunter who went out to the area being proposed for hunting would agree that it's not a good place to hunt.
"If you stand there and look around, you'll say, yeah, I can shoot a shotgun here," Stewart said. "But will it be a quality hunt and a safe hunt? Those are the important factors."
Stewart said he would be in favor of a hunting display, a sort of virtual hunting blind where visitors to the refuge could sit in a duck blind up against water filled with decoys to better understand hunting. There could be demonstrations of duck calling, decoy setting, etc.
City Lakes program manager Jim Brown proposed the idea of a virtual hunting blind last year when he realized there likely wouldn't be any waterfowling in the refuge.
"I think interpretation about that would be great," Stewart said. "I said that to the staff and got some looks and heard some groans, but I like the idea. It's a tradition. And you don't want it to die, don't want it to die because people are moving away from the outdoors. You want them to still understand it and appreciate it and to participate in it where it's appropriate . . . in the right places. I'm totally in favor of it."
Stewart said he's not ruling out a hunting program for the inland section of the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge, near Jamul and Campo. There won't be any canned pheasant hunting, he said, but there might be hunting of native wildlife such as quail and doves.
"A bird hunt there someday is in the cards for San Diego," he said.
Asked when hunters could expect a program there, Mendel said: "I'd say within five years."
Stewart said the refuge's total footprint in eastern San Diego County is about 33,000 acres, but at present the refuge system covers just 7,000 acres.
"We're trying to get more land out there, and the part we own is being recreated on," he said.
There is no hunting on the 7,000 acres owned by the federal government, but the area is open to hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding.
"There's actually too much recreation going on out there right now," Stewart said. "People are going on trails where there aren't trails. We need a planning meeting, need to go through the public process to establish a trails system there. Certain areas need to be be closed for environmental concerns."
Don Brubaker, the USFWS assistant refuge manager in San Diego, has been studying the area to arrive at some proposals for public meetings.
"We need a trails management plan for that area," he said. "What will be allowed and will it be compatible to the other users, the animals there, the resources? This land has been set aside for plants, animals and habitat. But it also includes recreation. We have to make sure the recreational activity doesn't disrupt the goals of the refuge."
By Ed Zieralski, SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
March 16, 2003
Waterfowl hunters who held onto the slight hope that hunting would be permitted in the South Bay Unit of the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge can forget about it.
Mendel Stewart, San Diego National Wildlife Refuge manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said Friday that a hunting program is not part of the Comprehensive Conservation Plan, due out at the end of May.
"I don't think it's going to be," Stewart said. "The reason is it just doesn't fit. We got letters from the Navy and every organization around San Diego Bay saying that they were concerned about it from a safety standpoint. That was what killed it."
The fact that hunting won't be permitted at the refuge did not surprise Jack Bransford, president of the San Diego Fish and Wildlife Federation and a San Diego County Fish and Wildlife Commissioner.
"That's not unexpected," Bransford said. "We only held a slight glimmer of hope."
Bransford pointed out that the forces against hunting there far outnumbered the hunters who wanted access to a limited program.
"They had the louder guns," Bransford said.
But what Bransford and other proponents of hunting couldn't understand is the Navy's logic about ballistics. Stewart repeated Friday that the Navy had concerns about shotgun blasts under its planes, some of which, the Navy said, fly as low as 500 feet above San Diego Bay.
Shotgun blasts, depending on the shot number, typically range 50 to 80 yards – 150 feet to 240 feet.
"The planes he's talking about, the ones that are in the Iraqi desert right now, if that's such a safety concern, then our tax dollars aren't being spent on the right aircraft," Bransford said.
James A. Peugh, coastal and wetlands conservation chair for the San Diego Audubon Society, has never been in favor of allowing waterfowl hunting in San Diego Bay.
"The Salton Sea is such a rich resource and a much more compatible place for hunting," Peugh said. "The middle of San Diego Bay is not the right place to do that."
Stewart said any hunter who went out to the area being proposed for hunting would agree that it's not a good place to hunt.
"If you stand there and look around, you'll say, yeah, I can shoot a shotgun here," Stewart said. "But will it be a quality hunt and a safe hunt? Those are the important factors."
Stewart said he would be in favor of a hunting display, a sort of virtual hunting blind where visitors to the refuge could sit in a duck blind up against water filled with decoys to better understand hunting. There could be demonstrations of duck calling, decoy setting, etc.
City Lakes program manager Jim Brown proposed the idea of a virtual hunting blind last year when he realized there likely wouldn't be any waterfowling in the refuge.
"I think interpretation about that would be great," Stewart said. "I said that to the staff and got some looks and heard some groans, but I like the idea. It's a tradition. And you don't want it to die, don't want it to die because people are moving away from the outdoors. You want them to still understand it and appreciate it and to participate in it where it's appropriate . . . in the right places. I'm totally in favor of it."
Stewart said he's not ruling out a hunting program for the inland section of the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge, near Jamul and Campo. There won't be any canned pheasant hunting, he said, but there might be hunting of native wildlife such as quail and doves.
"A bird hunt there someday is in the cards for San Diego," he said.
Asked when hunters could expect a program there, Mendel said: "I'd say within five years."
Stewart said the refuge's total footprint in eastern San Diego County is about 33,000 acres, but at present the refuge system covers just 7,000 acres.
"We're trying to get more land out there, and the part we own is being recreated on," he said.
There is no hunting on the 7,000 acres owned by the federal government, but the area is open to hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding.
"There's actually too much recreation going on out there right now," Stewart said. "People are going on trails where there aren't trails. We need a planning meeting, need to go through the public process to establish a trails system there. Certain areas need to be be closed for environmental concerns."
Don Brubaker, the USFWS assistant refuge manager in San Diego, has been studying the area to arrive at some proposals for public meetings.
"We need a trails management plan for that area," he said. "What will be allowed and will it be compatible to the other users, the animals there, the resources? This land has been set aside for plants, animals and habitat. But it also includes recreation. We have to make sure the recreational activity doesn't disrupt the goals of the refuge."
