We are not picking sides in this fight between duck hunters over how to co-exist peacefully at McIntyre Scatters.
The Mississippi Commission on Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks waded into this dispute recently, and the firestorm of reaction it received underlines just how seriously folks take hunting around here.
The commission was trying to navigate a dispute between a private hunting association that owns land in the McIntyre Scatters region and hunters who use the public land side.
The Leflore County Hunting and Fishing Association claims that hunters on the public land are creating a safety hazard by setting up too close — and thus firing their shotguns — near the hunters set up on the private land. The hunters on the public land claim that’s just an excuse for trying to push them farther away so as to reduce the competition for the ducks that land in that prime hunting area.
The dispute has underscored the tensions that exist between hunters with the financial resources to own their own hunting grounds and those who don’t have that kind of money and can only hunt on public lands, such as the Malmaison Wildlife Management Area. Both are keen about their sport, both have been pinched by declining duck numbers, and both feel they are right.
It’s a delicate problem, and one the commission might back away from when it meets on Thursday to take up a proposal, initially passed last month on a 3-2 vote, to create a 100-yard no-hunting buffer on the public land side of the McIntyre Scatters region. Such a buffer, it is estimated, would reduce the available public hunting area in the Scatters by about a third.
One hundred yards, it is argued by those opposed to the rule change, is excessive. Establishing how much distance is appropriate, though, might still be a good idea.
The present rule is completely open to interpretation. It tells the hunters on the public side to set up at a “safe distance” from the border with the private property, but it doesn’t specify how far is considered safe. One hunter might think 100 yards, another 10 yards. As long as the hunters are not trespassing on private property, there’s no objective standard that wildlife conservation officers can enforce.
Having a specified and clearly understood distance, as long as it’s reasonable and does not unfairly reapportion the duck numbers toward the hunting association, might be helpful for everyone involved. Given as hot as both sides have gotten over this issue, a modest buffer between them might be prudent.
