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There is little doubt Chester Frost Park is a wonderful addition to the greater Chattanooga area. Many people in the Hixson area enjoy it regularly; however, many people are not aware that hunting is allowed very close to the park. Since the public is rarely informed on the goings on in their community, this terse article is necessary. I would like to tell you how a group of local duck hunters plan to spend the few days after Thanksgiving. Not many people are aware of this, and this should not be the case. But first, it is a little known fact that duck hunters stalk and kill ducks and other waterfowl in the exact same place where they are fed by campers all year long in Chester Frost Park. Weapons are discharged mere hundreds of feet from campers, hikers, joggers, and park goers. Joggers have been sprayed by falling shotgun pellets and campers’ RVs have been peppered by duck hunters’ pellets. And it’s all completely legal.

The TWRA (Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency) requires hunters be properly licensed and comply with all local regulations when hunting from temporary duck blinds, such as the one being constructed just a few hundred feet outside of the camping area. To be in compliance with regulations, hunters must be at least one hundred yards from any occupied residence; campgrounds, by the way, are indeed considered occupied residences. Keep in mind, it is not the decision of Chester Frost Park or any of its employees or managerial staff which allows duck hunting mere hundreds of feet from campers, it is the TWRA and TVA (The Tennessee Valley Authority). I’ve actually been informed that the rangers dislike the practice of hunters discharging weapons in such close proximity to the park. To reiterate, the TWRA or TVA –and not the staff of Chester Frost Park- should be the recipient of any inquiries or complaints this article may generate.

If familiar with the park, one knows the causeway bridge main entrance leading into the camping portion of the park accessed from Gold Point Circle Road. Just to the right of the causeway is a picnic area with some unpaved roads, pavilions, and jogging areas. During the late fall and winter months, the water recedes a great deal and much of the lake bottom is visible. An island is now accessible due to the low water level. This is where the temporary duck blind is currently being constructed to take full advantage of the often present duck and other waterfowl that frequent this portion of the park. The reason this particular spot is used by duck hunters is twofold. First, the island actually belongs to TVA and is not technically a part of the county park. The other reason they hunt here is because it is a duck feeding area. That’s right: it is a posted waterfowl feeding area. The sign is in plain sight, less than one hundred feet from the hunting blind actually, and in plain English it reads “WATERFOWL FEEDING AREA.” Here is where the fearless hunters disguise their scents and their presence and shoot and kill unsuspecting ducks and the occasional Canadian goose.

I believe hunting on this island is actually illegal under the auspices of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s national guidelines regarding baiting hunts. However, there is first the issue of bringing weapons into a state or county park to examine. It is true TVA allows hunting on this small island (roughly 60 feet square with very little tree cover to muffle the shotgun blasts to sleeping campers a mere football field away). However, to get to the island hunters must park on county property and walk to the island thereby carrying weapons illegally through a state park. The way this is managed, is that hunters are forced to carry their weapons unloaded through the parking area. Once upon the island they then load the weapons and kill the birds. At the close of the hunt they carry their unloaded weapons and remaining ammunition separately to their vehicles. However, if a camper were to have an unloaded weapon in the campground, he or she would be in violation of state law. And beyond state law is federal law, and speaking of federal law….

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Office of Law Enforcement strictly prohibits “baited hunting.” Its website reads, “You cannot hunt waterfowl by the aid of baiting or on or over any baited area where you know or reasonably should know that the area is or has been baited” (website). There is no commonsensical way to not conclude that this definitely includes hunting in a place clearly marked “WATERFOWL FEEDING AREA.” I would like to hear from the TWRA how hunters shooting ducks this Thanksgiving season at Chester Frost Park is not an illegal baited hunt. In further explanation, the USFWS further defines baiting because it is much concerned about this illegal and immoral practice that is too often employed by irresponsible hunters and poachers of little moral compass. Baiting is defined as “the direct or indirect placing, exposing, depositing, distributing, or scattering of salt, grain, or other feed that could lure or attract waterfowl to, on, or over any areas where hunters are attempting to take them” (website). In fact, the USFWS insists on what is called the Ten Day Rule which reads “A baited area remains off limits to hunting for 10 days after all salt, grain, or other feed has been completely removed. This rule recognizes that waterfowl will still be attracted to the same area even after the bait is gone” (website).

There will be observable grain and bread on the ground during duck season and yet the hunters will continue to hunt, as they have for years in this location, and the TWRA will not be endeavoring to stop them. There is no doubt there will be observable corn and grain on the ground because there are avid bird feeders who spend money to leave the birds food they need for the winter. One waterfowl activist I know spends a considerable amount of her money to care for the birds she loves so much. As a result, the area is an active feeding area and the hunting there should be protested on the grounds that it is an illegal baited hunt. Even if no grain or bread were present, the USFWS’s ten day rule acknowledges the birds still frequent feeding areas after the bait is gone. Since park goers and their children feed the ducks at this location year round, it is my belief that duck hunting should not be allowed in this area. The fact that they are hunting in a posted waterfowl feeding area is in direct violation of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s proper hunting guidelines and should be seen as no less repugnant than fishing in an aquarium. Even if the TWRA is not bound by the USFWS’s regulations, the regulations are logical and feasible. It would be a wonderful thing if the TWRA and TVA received various communiqués from concerned Hixson and Chattanooga area residents questioning the wisdom of allowing hunting at a campground complete with children’s playgrounds. After all, TVA could simply not allow hunting on that particular island.

At this point in my career, it is no secret I am an active animal rights activist and advocate who travels the country speaking on behalf of animals. I intend to keep all issues of animal rights out of this piece as there are other points of contention that we can all agree upon. In fact, in my research for this article I have found this is indeed a rare animal issue that animal rights activists and seasoned hunters can easily agree upon. I have spoken with several lifelong seasoned hunters regarding the subject of hunting just outside of Chester Frost Park. Unaminously, they oppose the notion of baited and/or canned hunts and feel such hunting is cowardly and very unsportsmanlike. These seasoned hunters feel hunting is a difficultly acquired skill and they all claim deep respect for the animals they kill and completely use. They feel hunting at this location gives hunters bad names. Even some of the Chester Frost Park rangers do not like the practice of duck hunting in their park. Being consummate professionals, they understand the safety of their campers and parkgoers is paramount. Often hunters will argue amongst themselves while vying for prime blind position. What Ranger would want heated arguments between men and women with heavy arsenals in their hands? Again, let me stress, it is not the Chester Frost Rangers nor anyone in the County Government that has decided to allow hunting this close to the park. In fact, they are powerless to prevent it as the duck hunters are hunting on TVA’s property in compliance with the TWRA hunting guidelines which, as I continue to argue, are in noncompliance with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s regulations regarding baited hunts. Also in my research, when asked how campers felt that hunters would be discharging live weapons only a few hundred yards from where they are sleeping –from where their children are sleeping- none of them supported the activity. Several were alarmed.

As I said, animal rights issues are not the primary impetus of this particular piece. For now, consider the tragic incident in Swan Lake New York. Recently a hunter was shooting at a deer from a tree stand with a high caliper rifle about 400 feet from a residence. After missing the deer, his stray bullet pierced the walls of a house, struck and killed a 16 month old toddler named Charly Skala. The hunter, Edward Taibi, has been charged with second degree manslaughter and is accused of hunting recklessly since New York State law forbids discharging a rifle or a bow within 500 feet of a known residence. The admittedly very remorseful Taibi was also hunting over illegal bait including salt licks and sweet feed according to Senior Investigator Mike Orrego of the Liberty state police barracks. The hunting community in New York and elsewhere has almost unanimously declared Taibi an irresponsible hunter who will likely give gun owners and hunters a bad name.

A pertinent question is how long until a stray bullet or spray of pellets causes a similar situation in Chester Frost Park? One acquaintance of mine, the aforementioned fearless advocate and friend of waterfowl and animals, has been championing this cause for years while getting no positive response from the public. She has spoken to TVA, the TWRA, and other entities to no avail. She even attempted to file a lawsuit on behalf of the waterfowl against the TWRA and was advised against waging a doomed costly legal battle against a heavily connected and influential entity. I have been informed by an avid hunter that due to the practice of shooting upward at birds, shotgun pellets can easily travel farther than three hundred feet. Consequently, a jogger related the story to the waterfowl activist that one day while he was jogging in the park he felt shotgun pellets over spraying him after hearing shotgun blasts. Pellets do lose momentum much quicker than rifle ammunition, and the jogger’s over spray was harmless that time, but do we want shotgun pellets flying overhead at all at our beloved Chester Frost Park? Over our children’s heads?

If hunting deer from a tree stand looming over salt licks is considered unsportsmanlike by seasoned hunters, it stands to reason hunting ducks at a duck pond feeding area is equally questionable. I would love to hear if seasoned and responsible duck hunters publicly feel placing a duck blind less than a hundred feed from a posted waterfowl feeding area is sportsmanlike or responsible. No one in the greater Chattanooga area currently seems to be too concerned about this particular hunting area; perhaps it is because not very many people know about it. However, if it were Hixson Tennessee dealing with the death of a toddler by the stray bullet of a hunter instead of Swan Lake, New York, all sorts of Chattanoogans would have plenty to say. What I say is that enough of us should complain in order to get hunting banned in Chester Frost Park. It’s true the blind is the maximum amount of feet away from dwellings and campgrounds; nevertheless, it is essentially an illegal baited hunt. If Taibi were 506 feet away from the Skala residence, would the child have been safe from his bullets? There is too much risk involved in this scenario. Hunting supporters argue that hunting is actually very safe and has a very low non-participant fatality rate. The issue of population control hunting is complex, but the clear logical question appears to be should be asked to condone any sport with any non-participant fatality rate at all. At the very least, TVA should not allow hunting on this particular island in such close proximity to the park. However, if no one complains nothing gets accomplished. And that makes it all the more important to bring this issue into the light of discussion beyond hunters and the TWRA.

And what of the people who enjoy feeding the ducks and spending quiet afternoons watching them fly, swim, and socialize? Consider the children who may ask what that noise is as the shotguns boom and the birds fall mangled to the ground. And, I did say I wouldn’t bring it up, but one of the most important questions regarding this entire subject is what of the birds? I drove through Chester Frost Park this afternoon to see the area again before finalizing this area. Today it was cool and peaceful. Ducks were swimming serenely on the inlet waterway and geese waded in the shallows on stick legs. Dozens of birds milled peacefully about the area, perhaps looking for camper breadcrumbs or a handout from a small child who receives joy from these great animals. And marring the idyllic scene, reeking of the self importance and anthropocentrism of Man, were the four wooden stakes and the beginning of the duck blind which will most likely be used just a few days from now to cut those same birds out of the sky which is rightfully theirs. The hunting debate will undoubtedly continue; however, in global comparison very few people are starving in the developed West and to shatter this natural bio-scape is reprehensible. One hunter told me “Frankly, hunting at a duck pond is cowardly. Those men aren’t hunters. They’re cowards.” For the record, there is one hunter with which I most whole heartedly agree.

To reiterate, what I believe one of the few things animal advocates and hunters of animals can agree upon is the illogic of hunters conducting illegal baited duck hunts at duck feeding areas in a state park merely hundreds of feet from campers, joggers, children, and Chattanoogans. The season begins the day after Thanksgiving. They’ll be there by 6:30 a.m. or so, well before sunrise. They’ll be setting up, drinking coffee, and lost in the excitement of the challenging hunting tactics and technologies. They will be busy deftly planning to go to a duck pond and blow terrified and mangled ducks out of God’s early morning sky. Perhaps they will even give thanks the day before for all the abundant blessings of God. They’ll be there. I’ll be around.

Keep in mind, it is illegal –and of course dangerous- to harass licensed hunters who are hunting illegally. However, if any protest is happening at the actual scene of the hunt just before sunrise, it will be in the name of protesting an illegal baited hunt. However, leave the protesting to the experienced protestors and never engage a hunter in the wild. Never be disrespectful toward or enrage an armed hunter for obvious reasons. Instead, if you are concerned about this information, stay at home and email the TWRA or contact TVA and let them know this upsets you. If you know hunters, ask them to please not hunt in Chester Frost Park. If they must do so, ask them to go to more remote locations to take their prizes. We are in TWRA region 3 and their number is 1-800-262-6704. Drop them a respectful line and see if they can provide any rationale which legitimizes hunting at a posted waterfowl feeding area. I take great joy in going to Chester Frost Park and hiking, running, bird watching, and feeding the raccoon colony that has thrived there for years. It is my hope we can exert some pressure as concerned citizens and get hunting banned on this one tiny island so close to the unsuspecting baited waterfowl and the sleeping children. Have a great holiday season filled with compassion for all living beings.

Mike Jaynes

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To: Mr. Mike Jaynes

What a convoluted load of drivel. You must have a lot more free time than
the rest of us. Although, I am not a duck hunter, I am a boater and I can
tell you that we now have ducks and geese in this area year-round because
individuals like you and your friends continue to feed them and have
interrupted the natural breeding cycle.
Thanks a lot.

Alan Rogers
Chattanooga

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Mr. Jaynes,
Your opinion piece is full of inconsistencies and untruths. I suggest you, a self proclaimed animal activist, educate yourself before making ignorant statements like the following:

"But first, it is a little known fact that duck hunters stalk and kill ducks and other waterfowl in the exact same place where they are fed by campers all year long in Chester Frost Park."

Duck hunters do not “stalk” ducks.

"Here is where the fearless hunters disguise their scents and their
presence, wait for the birds to come, and rip their bodies to pieces with
shotgun blasts."

What is the best “scent disguise” for ducks?

"Recently a hunter was shooting at a deer from a tree stand with a high
caliper rifle about 400 feet from a residence."

What does this have to do with duck hunting at Chester Frost Park? Also,
we deer hunters use high caliber rifles, not calipers.

You are using typical rhetoric that most animal rights activists use to create fear to the non-hunting public. As a Tennessee sportsman, I resent the way you people go about trying to force your beliefs on everyone. You mention feeding wildlife a couple of times in your diatribe. Well, Google “artificial feeding of wildlife” and see how wrong you are. You say you are animal lovers but are uneducated enough to not understand how this feeding spreads disease in wild animals. Remember, we are talking about wild animals here. I know I will never convince an anti hunter they are wrong, so I seldom engage one. The non-hunters of the world are different though. Most have common sense and do not judge us as “criminals” the way you extremists do.

J McGowan
Signal Mountain, TN

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To: Mike Jaynes
Convoluted load of drivel would be an understatement for what I just spend
15 min reading. Mr. James as a duck hunter and a fisherman I have some
serious problems with what I just read in the post. To quote you ( Perhaps they will even give thanks the day before for all the abundant blessings of God) that kind of statement right there I take major offense to because you make the average outdoors man sound like he is a monster.

You needed to keep your personal attacks and your religion out of your
post and keep to the facts. I have never hunted the particular area that you are talking about and I could understand your points with the camp ground and other things around there but to say that hunters are hunting illegally is just plain wrong. Hunting over natural vegetation is the right of all hunters and can be used in there harvest. I have hunted across the river from this area for over 10 years and have been stopped by TWRA more then a dozen times. They do a great job of making sure the laws are not broken so lets let them make the decision on where we can hunt and if you have a problem with that you need to take it up with them instead of spending hours writing a book on a point that should have been made in two paragraphs.

Justin Sneed
Soddy Daisy TN 37379

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You have my unqualified and enthusiastic support, Mr. Jaynes. Anyone who takes the time to study the history of recreational killing in America is well aware that it has evolved into an unnecessary, immoral and a
tremendous waste of resources which arises out of an entrenched cabal
composed of the NRA's gun lobby and a "wildlife management" bureaucracy
that hasn't had a new idea to keep pace with changing times in a hundred
years.

When hunting regulations were first conceived, Americans were still
suffering under a belief in endless resources. Waterfowl were being
shipped east to the big city from Midwestern marshes where they were
slaughtered by the boxcar load. Deer had been nearly wiped out. Poor
people who could buy a $5 shotgun were hunting robins for their tablespoon of meat. The millinery trade paid a few dollars for sack loads of egret feathers and hummingbird skins so their showy and iridescent feathers
could be woven into hats and dress cloth. The result was extinction and
near extinction for many of North America's unique and beautiful creatures. All the result of ignorance, greed, maliciousness and idiotic
religious teachings yakking about man having "dominion" over Earth. You
see, all those fish and fowl existed just for us so it just didn't matter
if we "used them up."

When the situation was recognized as grave by more educated minds who
understood that the natural world of nature wasn't man's playtoy, the
concept of "wildlife management" came into being. In reality it was nothing but "human management" - a way to assuage the human urge to kill,
the traditionalists who "had done it all their lives," the ignorant who did it 'cause "my daddy taught me how," and on and on while preventing a massive rape of the natural world.

The most dominant reason for the development of "wildlife management" was to attempt to restore pitifully depleted populations of game species
- less than 10 percent of North American wildlife species. There was
plenty of room for the other 90 percent at that time and hunters could see
the logic behind buying a "license to kill" if the revenue paid for more
things to stalk, shoot, trap and snare. Still, they called it "wildlife" management giving the impression that it took care of everything out there
because all the rest somehow benefitted from game restoration programs.

Of course this was hogwash. When stability was restored to game populations by mid-century, if their
purpose was to preserve "wildlife" there SHOULD have been a massive shift
by game agencies away from unneeded programs to create artificial
abundance of the ten percent of game species, to address the perilous new
world faced by 90 percent of native species - massive habitat loss,
pollution of air and water, draining of wetlands, conversion of forests to
sterile pine farms, on and on. But NO, said the gun lobby, NO said
hunters and fishermen - we PAY for licenses to kill so those agencies work
for US! So 90 percent of America's wildlife and 85 percent of America's
population were held hostage by these selfish cretins.

Of course, this suited entrenched bureaucrats just fine and the NRA and
their lackeys could rest assured they were in control. This brought us
hundreds of endangered species, the near loss of our national symbol and
upsets in ecology that will NEVER be corrected.

The greatest failure of wildlife management, even as environmental
awareness has flourished, is that there has been NO meaningful attempt to
educate the non-hunting general citizenry that targeted programs for the
beleaguered 90 percent of our wildlife are their responsibility. Bird seed, binocular and wildlife tourism are huge - yet some people cannot understand that a small tax on their camping and birdwatching equipment is a necessary source for funding critical programs we need. Hunters have been paying taxes and license fees for their programs since the beginning. Now that we have deer in everybody's backyard but hundreds of species teetering on the brink of extinction - it's past time for a change in focus if we really care about our environment.

Hunting and trapping will die off soon enough as more people realize they
serve no useful purpose any more but to satisfy our base instincts and
lizard brains. Helping the process along will be the inexorable process wherein places to practice them disappear under industrial parks
and subdivisions (been to Ooltewah lately?). Now is the time to call a
halt to the idiocy of situations like that described at Chester Frost by Mr. Jaynes. Public safety and the sensibilities of the vast majority of
citizens should not be held hostage by anachronism. Times change. I no
longer go to the lake with an air horn in an attempt to scare ducks away
from blinds or puncture the tires of the mud wagons of overfed deer hunters. Idiots will do what idiots will do on both sides of the argument. The solution that is needed will only come when environmental education makes our species aware that its survival will never be assured by recreational killing but by making basic ecology a major part of our educational experience. The vast number of humans have no idea how the Earth works - any more than how their automobiles work. We step on them without thinking about it, but if it weren't for fungi and soil bacteria on land and phytoplankton in the oceans, humans and all other life on earth would simply dry up and blow away.

One can only wonder if we will
ever talk openly about the critical need for programs to assure THEIR survival.

Bruce Wilkey
Signal Mountain, Tenn.

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This is an interesting editorial. I am an avid outdoorsman and have involved my children in my passion. I have never hunted near Chester Frost and don't really know the area. However, if it is as close to the general public as Mr. Jaynes states, I personally would not enjoy that hunt.

Does that mean it is illegal?

I don't know. I prefer not to hunt close to anything within the shotguns "pepper" range.

My focus with this letter is strictly the false statements, primarily from Mr. Wilkey's reply. I do not wish to belittle, or force my opinion on anyone for their belief. I don't think this gentleman really understands what outdoorsmen have done for "making basic ecology a major part of our educational experience." I suggest we compare just dollar amounts alone.

Compare the taxes and licensing outdoorsman give with every purchase alone to that of animal rights activists. My guess is that it far exceeds the
moneys that activists put into the system. I don't know how many tourism dollars are spent by animal rights activists, but once again I think it is safe to say hunters and fisherman spend more there as well. Yes, it takes
money for game species and non-game species alike to have support.

Hunters foot the bill for all of the above. Ducks Unlimited, Trout Unlimited, Rocky Mt. Elk Foundation, B.A.S.S., QDMA, these are just a few of the organizations that put tons of money and volunteer hours into restoring habitat, saving habitat, and fostering species across the country. What have the anti's done beyond lobbying and protesting?

"Recreational killing is unnecessary and a tremendous waste of time."

I love this one. I can understand a person not hunting, or even being a
proponant of it, but that statement is strictly biased opinion. Let's consider an issue alluded to by Mr. Wilkey. Wild lands are shrinking daily. They don't make more dirt. Urban sprawl puts stresses on animal communities that are difficult at best to deal with. Each species is put in a smaller habitat and therefore populations are of the same density with less space. These populations must be controlled for the health of each species as well as the habitat that is left. Hunting is the answer.

I know this doesn't sit well with the animal rights community, but it is logical. I hunt, I fish, and I love nature. I watch more deer travel by my stand than I ever could or will harvest. I keep less than 1% of the fish I catch.

I AM PROUD TO PARTAKE IN THE TRADITION OF HUNTING AND
WOODSMANSHIP.

I am proud to say that my dollars go to help preserve more than just the species I am looking to harvest on any given day.

As far as stray bullets hitting innocent victims, that is beyond sad. But, do we hang Ford Motors when an idiot gets behind the wheel drunk? I think not! There are just as many bad animal rights activist stories as there are dumb hunter stories.

Jeff Moore
Chattanooga,TN

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Jeff Moore couldn't be more correct. There is nothing to add in his reply. Sometimes it's the obvious that slaps those in denial right in the face.

Avid waterfowler
Trey Wall
Ringgold, GA

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Dear Mr. Jaynes,

Duck season lasts a maximum of sixty days a year.

Please allow the legal sportsmen those 60 days and you may have the other 305/306.

Bill Cox
Collierville, TN