Opinion Piece and Petition By Randal South – March 9, 2019 –
Go to this site to sign petition: https://www.thepetitionsite.com/613/953/649/stop-bird-hunting-on-the-lake-earl-wildlife-refuge/
To be delivered to Jeffrey Stoddard, Program Manager, Charlton H. Bonham, Director, Governor Gavin Newsom, The California State House, The California State Senate.
We the undersigned request that California Department of Fish and Wildlife end hunting on the Lake Earl Wildlife Refuge. Hunting defeats the purpose of a tax payer supported wildlife refuge.
As grounds for this petition we request the state of California to take notice of the following:
1) Prior to 1971, Lakeview Drive, formerly known as Lake Earl Road, did not dead end at the lake, resulting in a walk of more than 1,000 feet. The exercise of the county’s easement to the lake has significantly increased hunters, fisherman, and crime.
2) Little if anything that is killed along the lake is ever taken home and a number of pictures proving this are in the possession of the originator of this petition.
3) Residents along Lakeview Drive have had to contend with an ongoing traffic problem from hunters and fisherman who use the lake, as well as those who visit the lake after dark to do their drug deal.
4) The whole concept of hunting on a taxpayer supported Wildlife Refuge defeats the purpose of having the wildlife refuge and the California Dept of Fish and Widlife has a conflict of interest because they receive money from hunting licenses which support staffing and officers to visit the lake.
I met the gentleman that started Lake Earl to be a hunting area at a fish and game meeting in Sacramento thirty years ago! Very polite intelligent man! He had a wonderful insight on what that place could be used for! THE PUBLIC! I lived one half of a mile from the lake! Most people respect the land their right to hunt etc,
Also forgot to add that if hunters are shooting after dark it is after legal shooting hours so it is your (or anyone who witnesses it) obligation to call fish wildlife and report them. As well as any waste of wildlife you see. There is a reward.
Hunters are educated on their pastime and can identify individual types of ducks and geese very accurately. So no mistaken identity to worry about.
After hours drug activity has always been illegal…so leave that off of the duck hunters and fisherman. Be a responsible citizen and do something about that to the individuals partaking.
It’s not difficult to educate yourself on a subject or at least for most people…
The fact that your picture shows Mallard ducks that have had the breast meat removed (and probably the leg meat as well) which constitutes probably 95% of the usable meat on a wild duck shows you know nothing of the subject of the bird being used properly.
The area is NOT a refuge and never has been. It’s a wildlife area. I would try to educate you on what that means but I’m sure it wouldnt take….
Waterfowl hunters don’t use bullets so worry not you wont be shot in your house by a duck hunter….(probably)
100,000 signatures? From where? Take you bs there.
The fact that you would start something like this without any knowledge of facts says so much about you as an individual that most in this county would not miss you when you’re gone.
Lake Earl was home to a hunting club in the 1920’s, long before any homes were built on Lakeview. Today the sound of bird hunter’s shotguns can still be heard from Lake Earl, but not just on Lakeview. The town of Smith River, Fort Dick, Hiouchi, and Gasquet are all within hearing range of Lake Earl. So too are the sounds of the rifle range at the prison, the blow of the fog horn, and barking of sea lions coming from Crescent City. As a life long resident of this gem of a county, I appreciate these sounds, they are comforting. They make me feel at home. BULLETS are never used for bird hunting. Shotguns are used and they shoot steel bbs. The chance any shot could reach the homes on Lakeview from a hunter on Lake Earl is pretty unrealistic. Deer hunting is not allowed in the Lake Earl Wildlife Area, so if a dead deer was found, probably not the doings of a responsible license holding bird hunter. Funny how this petition is signed by nearly 100,000 people. Del norte count doesn’t have 100,000 people. I wonder how many petition signers are from here or have even ever been here to hear the sounds. I doubt this petition will bring about any change other than the raising of some peoples blood pressure.
History of Lake Earl: From California Fish and Wildlife Website
Prior to European settlement, the Tolowa people inhabited the area surrounding what is now the wildlife area. The Tolowa utilized coastal and upland resources on a cyclic basis. Lake Earl and Tolowa were strategically important for food and transportation. The Jedediah Smith Expedition of 1828 was the first documented European contact with the Tolowa people. Disease and war decimated their population. The European settlers soon began extracting the rich resources of the area and developing industry and agriculture. In the late 1850s, the natural harbor at Crescent City was developed for ocean-going vessels which brought goods and supplies to settlers and miners.
As early as 1869, saw mills were established on the eastern shores of Lake Earl. Settlers logged the original coastal forest. A controversy began over lake water levels, where loggers required high levels to transport and store logs, and farmers wanted low levels to reclaim more land for pasture and prevent seasonal flooding. The conflict ended when a rail line was built in 1891 to transport logs, but agricultural interests continued to periodically manipulate the levels.
During the 1920s, conservationists began to voice concern over the artificial breaching of Lake Earl, and the debate continued through the 1900s. In 1979, the Department purchased coastal wetland habitat, and the property was designated as a wildlife area by the Fish and Game Commission in 1980.
I do not believe that hunters and the species of birds being killed is being enforced since there is a limitation on what is allowed to be hunted: (t) Species Restrictions for Hunting on Type C Wildlife Areas: Only the species listed…below may be hunted (on this area). (10) Waterfowl, coots, snipe, and moorhens only. Also, how do you figure out what bird a hunter is shooting when they are firing off numerous shots when it is completely dark and sometimes raining heavily as well. Visibility zero so what is being shot at? Oh… and I am not a vegan or vegetarian….
It was taxpayer money that was used to create the Lake Earl Wildlife Refuge, and hunters protested so the Dept of Fish and Wildlife decided to allow hunting. That is the real story.
Why do you insist on calling it a refuge when it is clearly called a wildlife area.
REBUTTAL
So why do you believe that the ban on hunting on the south end of the lake is more justified that the ban on hunting off of Lakeview Drive?
The county’s exercise of their easement on Lakeview Drive (formerly Lake Earl Road) creating a road to the lake was not 10,000 years ago. It was done on or about 1971. I was at the property when it was done, and personally witnessed the bulldozers removing the land.
Also, is there a reason you can’t do your hunting on the Lake Tolowa side that is about 3 miles west? The advantage of doing it on the Tolowa side is that you would not expose residents on Lakeivew Drive to the sound of gunfire, nor would you expose them to stray bullets which is a common concern among people who live on this street.
And furthermore I would like to point out that it is a common and widely accepted practice to give native americans special hunting and fishing privileges, but your post suggest that everyone should have those privileges which obviously not the right approach; otherwise you end up with the big piles of dead birds and dead deer as what is depicted in this petition. The birds in this petition were discarded within 10 feet of the north side of LakeView Drive on the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and I personally took those pictures. And while these pictures may not be your birds, you haven’t addressed the issue of what you plan to do about it.
I guess you really don’t care !!!
This is misinformation it is not and never was a wildlife Refuge! It is a wildlife area known as the lake earl Wildlife area For hunting & fishing & hiking , birdwatching etc. One piece of it on the southern most end of lake tolowa at the mouth is a Reserve without hunting .Me and my people have hunted this area since time immoral for at least 10,000 years. We enjoy it also and do not leave dead rotting birds in our wake. And we have no intention to desecrate this site , but I am not vegan and have no intention to become one through peer pressure . This kind of misinformation breeds ignorance & perpetuates radicalism . All the hunters I know of respect this piece of land and only want to enjoy it also.PS I have hunted and fished this lake and area for over half a century myself.
The area you are referring to is called Lake Earl Wildlife Area, it has been hunted for thousands of years. There is no Lake Earl wildlife Refuge. Maybe if you still lived here or ever went there, you would know. Nearly 100,000 people have signed this petition based on misleading information.