Neighbors are opposed to
proposed changes at game farm

Jim Streu says he’s a good neighbor who’s just trying to make a go of his farm so he can keep it in the family.
But some of the people who own land next to him say Streu’s fall and winter game bird hunting preserve is noisy and dangerous.
And they’re against his plans to expand hunting and dog training year round while extending daily hours.
Streu has applied to the Wright County Planning Commission for a conditional use permit to operate the Western Wild Wings preserve all year long.
Commission members held a hearing in March and set Thursday, April 26, to consider a decision.
Streu and his brother Doug before him have operated the hunting preserve for six years on a 111-acre spread between County Road 38 and Goose Lake in French Lake Township, about four miles southwest of Annandale.
“All I’m doing is trying to make the farm work so I can keep the farm in the family,” Streu said in an interview. The land’s been family-owned since the 1940s.
“I’m a good neighbor,” he said. “It’s a legitimate business.”
Streu said he took over the pheasant and quail hunting preserve two years ago after the original permit had been granted to Doug.
The preserve has operated from Sept. 1 to March 1 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Besides proposing to operate all year, he wants to be open daily from 9 a.m. to a half-hour before sunset.
Streu said he probably wouldn’t have asked for the extra hours “but this winter has been so terrible.”
Heavy snowfall that often fell on weekends disrupted scheduled hunts.
The later daily hours would accommodate many hunters who would like to come out after work or after school, he said.
And expanded operation would allow many late summer activities. Youth hunter training and women’s outdoors groups would be among potential users, Streu said.
That would also present an opportunity to do more dog training in late summer, he said, when owners want to begin getting their animals ready for hunting season.
Training dogs to retrieve birds from water would take place in a pond area nearer his neighbors than other hunting activity, Streu said, and would involve shooting blanks to simulate a shotgun.
But the noise wouldn’t be worse than other country noises. “It’s not going to be Vietnam. It’s not going to be nuts.”
Karyn Peterson and her husband, Bill, own 12 1/2 acres that adjoin Streu’s property on the east and north.
They live in Bloomington, but she told the Advocate they plan to build a home on their country property and retire there next summer.
“It’s a nightmare already,” she said of the hunting preserve.
“The thought of this going year round, it’s my worst nightmare.
“It shouldn’t be there at all,” she said.
The preserve hasn’t met the terms of the original permit, it’s not safe and it’s a noise nuisance, she said.
“They should eliminate it entirely.”
Hunters are allowed to shoot from 100 feet away from the Peterson’s property line, she said, while at even 150 feet a shotgun blast could be fatal.
Her husband and a nephew were standing near their pole barn 480 feet inside the property line last fall when shotgun pellets fell on them and the barn, she said.
Peterson said they find pheasant carcases on their land, so some of them are being shot over their property.
Buffer zones were supposed to be put in place to limit noise and danger, she said, but that condition was never met.
Peterson also said the planning commission shouldn’t consider information about Streu’s financial situation.
Jim Weege runs a hobby farm on 25 acres adjoining the north side of the game preserve.
When there’s shooting going on “I definitely don’t go up there,” he said in an interview.
Weege is concerned about the safety of his two young sons, and he said he’ll have to make sure they don’t wander to that end of the property.
Weege told of an incident that occurred when the preserve opened. He was bow hunting for deer from a tree on his property near the preserve.
Shotgun blasts were fired into his woods, he said, “close enough to scare you to get down out of the tree.”
The noise, Weege said, is bothersome at times.
“I’m sure he’s got a dream and he wants to make it happen . . . but I really think it’s not located well because of the other residents.”
Weege said he opposes year-round operation, and he’s concerned about the value of his property if he were to sell it.
Another neighbor, Harold Anderson, owns 40 acres next to Streu on the west.
He blamed hunters for knocking down the fence that keeps his cows in along the property line.
Anderson said he doesn’t feel endangered and isn’t bothered much by the noise, but he opposes later hours and year-round operation for the preserve.
If hunting took place until nightfall and his cows got out because hunters smashed the fence down, he’d have to look for the cows in the dark, Anderson said.
“I go out of my way to be safe,” Streu said.
He takes hunting groups to the other end of the field from neighbors’ properties, he said.
Sometimes he starts a hunt near the Peterson property so the hunters will be moving away and shooting the other way, Streu said.
Every year he marks off a buffer zone along the Peterson property with signs that say “No hunting beyond this point,” according to Streu.
Peterson never complained to him or law enforcement, Streu said, about shotgun pellets falling on her husband and nephew.
“But if it did happen, they weren’t in danger anyway.”
Streu said he’s never heard Weege mention any incident.
He cited insurance industry figures that indicate hunting is safer than riding a bicycle, roller skating and swimming, and hunting in a preserve “is considerably safer than hunting regularly.”
The noise isn’t any worse than other country sounds, he said. With tractors, trucks, dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles “the country is noisy.”
“Nothing has ever happened on that hunting preserve,” he said. “Not one thing.”
Its customers are gentlemen, Streu said. “They’re respectful of other people’s property.”
“It’s absolutely a wonderful, safe, wholesome activity.”
The planning commission told staff to consult with Streu and prepare a proposal for members to consider April 26.