Growing Inver Grove Heights considers tighter regulation on bowhunting

The Inver Grove Heights City Council is considering whether to require bowhunters to register with the city and pass a proficiency test to hunt within city limits, both efforts to make the activity safer in the fast-growing suburb. Meanwhile, this fall's goose hunt will be the city's last, council members decided Monday.

The two actions are connected, Mayor George Tourville said.

"The city's changing — that's the theme," he said. "The good thing is it's changing because of growth and businesses and houses."

Inver Grove Heights is only a couple of miles south of St. Paul, but it has substantial undeveloped land. The city has been tweaking its bowhunting ordinance for three years, trying to please both hunters and safety-minded homeowners. The city may have to ban hunting entirely one day as the population becomes more dense, City Administrator Joe Lynch said.

The proficiency test requirement "gives an extra measure of safety in that … you know how to aim a bow and you know how to hit a target," Lynch said.

The city currently allows bowhunting on about 25 percent of its land. Hunted parcels must be 2½ acres or larger, and hunters have to stay 300 feet from buildings and 200 feet from driveways and streets.

A recent city survey found that 68 percent of respondents believe hunting should be allowed within city limits.

The amendment has only passed a first reading, and three are required. Residents' reactions so far range from annoyed to supportive.

"Some people would like [the city] to stay the way it is," Tourville said. "Isn't that always true?"

Deer damage control

A balance is being sought between safety and tradition with the amendment, Lynch said.

But council members also must consider the area's sizable deer population. Deer cause car accidents and wreck landscaping, but their numbers are reduced when bowhunters thin out the herds.

In the city's survey, about 26 percent of survey respondents said their biggest wildlife problem was with deer, the most popular response.

Each year, deer do $2,000 worth of damage to Jim Krech's yard, gobbling up trees, shrubs and flowers, he said, and driving his wife nuts.

To combat the herbivores, he lets a handful of retired residents hunt on his acreage. Since he's outside the allowed hunting area, he had to arrange a special permit with the city to do so and was already considering making the hunters take a skills test.

"It's one more step — I'd prefer not to do it," he said. "But it's not a big problem."

Rob Cerny, who started hunting on Krech's land three years ago, believes he'd have no problem passing such a test.

"It's another unnecessary ordinance," Cerny said. "There's so many rules we have to follow when we live in town, it's ridiculous."

The test can be taken at archery ranges and stores. Some charge money while others do it for free, Lynch said.

"The proficiency test is a wonderful idea for bowhunting," said Brooks Johnson, president of Minnesota Bowhunters Inc. "If you can't pass that proficiency test, a lot of people would argue maybe you shouldn't be out in the field."

Tourville predicts the biggest complaints about the rule will be from landowners, who would have to register and take a test to hunt on their own land.

Resident Eric Bergum supports the proposed changes because they show consideration for both hunters and property owners, but compliance will be hard to enforce, he said.

In contrast to hunting with guns, which usually has a social aspect to it, bowhunting is "a very private thing," Bergum said, and hunters don't like to advertise their presence.

"The odds of [a hunter] registering on his own property are pretty slim," he said. "There's no teeth to [the ordinance]."

A second reading of the amendment is scheduled for Aug. 8.

Erin Adler • 612-673-1781