July 13, 2009

Going Hunting

Living in the Portland area, I hoped to find someplace in the northern Willamette valley to hunt rabbits. Nestled at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers lies Sauvie Island—made up primarily of private farms and more than 12,000 acres of wildlife area. The Sauvie Island Wildlife Area (SIWA) is full of ponds and lakes blanketed in woods and briar patches. That sounded like good rabbit habitat to me.

So in the summer of 2005, I called the SIWA office. I told the lady who answered the phone that I wanted to get some information concerning rabbit hunting with beagles on the island. She transferred me to a gentleman who, she said, could answer my questions.

I reiterated my desire to hunt rabbits with beagles to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) representative. During the lengthy discussion he and I had, he told me: 

1. He used to know of a hunter who hunted rabbits on the island, but he didn’t know if there were any current populations.
2. Rabbits are not controlled by the wildlife area.
3. While hunting, I have to follow all bird regulations including obtaining a parking permit, using non-toxic shot, having an HIP validation (Harvest Information Program), and observing the rules that determine the units I can hunt in.
4. I can hunt rabbits in any open roam unit or the north unit during any open season.

Our conversation ended with him sending me maps of all of the hunt units in the wildlife area and a dog training permit so I could start running the beagles in the west side unit.

Over the course of the next couple of years I hunted Sauvie Island but only during open bird seasons and in full compliance with the law. I even ran into ODFW personnel and had a good long chat about how rabbit populations had dropped over the years (probably due to coyotes).

The last time I hunted Sauvie Island was in late October of 2007. I was in the North unit which is mostly open fields segmented by rows and islands of blackberry briars. A lot of this area is very hard to hunt. The briars are thick with few openings, and there are areas where a rabbit has so much cover, the dogs will never see the light of day.

I hadn’t been able to take a shot at a single rabbit and I had resigned myself to going home empty-handed when the dogs plowed howling into the briars, and within what seemed like just a few minutes, I shot two rabbits—one of which was the largest cottontail I have ever taken.

Pleased with the dogs, I leashed them up, and as I walked to the car, I could see a sheriff’s deputy hovering nearby. I figured he wanted to check my license, so I waved to him and continued walking up the hill towards him.

When I made it to the car he informed me that he was going to cite me for illegally hunting rabbits. I protested saying that I had checked with the wildlife office and had, in fact, been hunting the island for years. He replied that as far as he knew rabbit hunting had never been allowed. So I traded my rabbits for a ticket. The deputy said that he would put the rabbits in a holding freezer in case I was cleared, and if I talked with the Sauvie Island Wildlife Manager and he said it was OK, he would drop the charge.

So off I went to the wildlife office to talk with Mark Nebeker. Mr. Nebeker basically reiterated the stance that rabbit hunting was not allowed on the wildlife area, and said that he was not going to tell a deputy what to do (i.e., he wasn’t going to ask for the charges to be dropped).

The Trial

January rolled around and it was time to go to court—I didn’t go unprepared. I brought copies of every regulation related to rabbit hunting and hunting at the SIWA. I also brought copies of the informational documents written by the ODFW about the SIWA (e.g., what to see and do on the island).

I arrived for court in a coat, tie, and slacks. Apparently, hunters don’t dress up very often for their court appearances because the judge thought I was a lawyer.

After I sat down at the defendant’s table, the deputy presented his case. He basically described our interaction from his vantage point. He presented no evidence to back up his claim that I had done anything illegal.

When he finished, I got to cross-examine him. It went like this:


At that point I got to present my defense. I described the day in October when I was cited. I also provided a sworn affidavit of a hunting partner that said he was with me on the island with me hunting rabbits when we encountered ODFW personnel, and they said nothing about rabbit hunting being illegal.

I stated to the court that cottontail rabbits have no statewide season. This is made clear on the ODFW website:


And this is further clarified in the 2007 Oregon Big Game Regulations definitions on page 85:


Next I told the court that none of the informational documents put out by ODFW list any limitations to hunting in the SIWA. To back this up I provided copies of pages from the Wildlife Areas section of the ODFW website and the Sauvie Island Visitors’ Guide on the ODFW website. Both of these documents list hunting as an activity on the wildlife area.

I then read the definition of hunt as found in the 2007 Oregon Big Game Regulations on page 84:


I informed the court that the only wildlife area in Oregon that controls rabbit hunting is the E. E. Wilson Wildlife Area near Corvallis. This was backed up by page 31 of the 2007-2008 Oregon Game Bird Regulations, page 96 in the 2007 Oregon Big Game Regulations, and page 5 of the Game Mammal General Seasons and Regulations, section 635-065-0625 Regulations on State Wildlife Areas, Refuges and Special Areas. Likewise, none of these documents list similar restrictions in the SIWA.

The Game Mammal General Seasons and Regulations were, as far as I am concerned, the most specific in terms of proving my innocence in that the section states:


Clearly if the SIWA was going to limit hunting a given species or class of animal, it had to be defined here.

I also told the court that both E. E. Wilson and Sauvie Island use hunting permits at self-check stations to monitor the number of animals taken. Hunting permits from both locations list rabbits as a huntable species.

The final administrative rule that could apply to this situation was found on page 8 of the Furbearing and Unprotected Mammal Regulations which states:


In fact, both the Sauvie Island and E.E. Wilson wildlife areas are listed in the restricted areas:


This would imply that one cannot hunt cottontails in either of these areas because they are, by definition, an unprotected mammal. However, page 3 of these rules explicitly omits cottontails and rabbits:


I again read ORS 498.002, paragraph 1—the statute I was charged with violating. I stated that I had clearly shown that there are no regulations or administrative rules that were violated as a result of my legal activities on Sauvie Island.

Finally, I said, “One in authority cannot simply decide that he or she does not like some legal activity and attempt to issue citations against those pursuing those activities. Doing so amounts to a misuse of authority in an effort to harass the citizens of this state.” The deputy was highly flustered when I said that, but I felt that I was truly in the right.

Apparently the judge also agreed. He said point blank that if ODFW wants to make an activity illegal, they need to notify hunters. He found me innocent.

I then asked the judge to make one more ruling—please order the deputy to return my rabbits to me—and he did.

In the parking lot, Mark Nebeker, the manager for the SIWA, was just shy of yelling at the deputy. He was clearly not happy. As the deputy and I discussed meeting back at the wildlife office so I could get my rabbits, Mr. Nebeker came over and insisted that rabbit hunting was still not permitted and I was warned by both him and the deputy not to return to the island to hunt. Mr. Nebeker also informed me that he was going to change the hunting regulations to state that rabbit hunting was not allowed.

I tried to talk to him about maybe allowing rabbit hunting on part of the wildlife area such as the north unit, and he replied that he once worked at E. E. Wilson and had all of those beagles howling down there, and he doesn’t want that at the island.

The Aftermath

I found that whole encounter to be very frustrating. Clearly the court had ruled that hunting rabbits was not illegal on the wildlife area, and why would I be told not to return to the island? So I sent a letter to the ODFW director and the members of the wildlife commission that described the evidence I presented to the court, the outcome, and the subsequent conversation I had with Mr. Nebeker. I also submitted an electronic copy via the ODFW website.

I received a pre-printed postcard from Carter Kerns, a commission member, a hand-written card from Zane Smith that seemed truly genuine, and finally a letter (page 1, page 2) from Jeff Boechler who identifies himself as the Watershed District Manager for the North Willamette Watershed District. This final letter referred to the very regulations I presented before the court, and it was asserted that because these regulations didn’t directly mention rabbit as a harvestable species that rabbit hunting in the wildlife area was illegal! It also said that Mr. Nebeker only meant to tell me not to hunt rabbit again.

So it is now the 2009 hunting season, and Mark Nebeker has followed up with his vow to change the rules. Page 33 of the 2008-2009 Oregon Game Bird Regulations now states:


Page 7 of the Game Mammal General Seasons and Regulations, section 635-065-0625 Regulations on State Wildlife Areas, Refuges and Special Areas now states that the SIWA is:


Interestingly the Furbearing and Unprotected Mammal Regulations have not been updated so rabbit is still excluded from the section outlawing hunting and trapping on the SIWA.

Page 8 of the Department of Fish and Wildlife Lands, Section 635-008-0146 Sauvie Island Wildlife Area Management Plan states:


It doesn't say hunting areas only for birds and deer, so the rules being applied to the SIWA doesn't fulfill this rule, and it does a big disservice to all of the taxpayers in the Portland area.

Mr. Nebeker is currently working on the management plan for the wildlife area. One of the objectives for the wildlife area is:


His number one strategy to further this objective is:


The reason this is so disconcerting is that the management plan, if passed, is effective for ten years! Besides, how does preventing hunting help to provide for hunting opportunities?

If you would like to let ODFW know how you feel on this issue, you can let the commission know by sending a polite email to:


Or write them at: