A growing concern for the safety of walkers, joggers and bicyclists in the Moffett Channel due to an increase in hunters discharging their firearms resulted in the city of Sunnyvale taking action.

The Sunnyvale City Council on Aug. 26 voted to increase signage and collaborative enforcement efforts during the hunting season, rather than banning hunting altogether in the area behind the city’s SMaRT Station on Carl Road.

The Don Edwards-San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge allows hunting just west of the Sunnyvale city sewage treatment ponds. Moffett Channel is not a designated check-in station for hunters, but because the area is under the jurisdiction of the state, the city can not restrict hunting there and would have to petition the California Fish and Game Commission in order to ban hunting in the area.

According to city staff, members of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife reported the number of hunters in this area has significantly increased in the past few years.

The past two hunting seasons, the department made 75 contacts with hunters and issued 12 citations for violations, most of which were for hunting without a license, discharge of a firearm across a levee or discharge of a firearm within city limits.

Fish and Wildlife officials believe the increase is due to the fact that hunters find it is easier to go out to the Moffett Channel and Guadalupe Slough rather than through the designated check-in stations for the Alviso Pond A3W blinds.

Sunnyvale resident Kira Od said the situation has become a free-for-all.

“There’s been an exponential increase in the number of hunters in the last few years. I used to know all of them; there used to be five to eight. I’m not against hunting, but I have to say we have to consider it,” Od said of the ban. “It’s scary out there, and someone will be shot soon. I’m sorry to say, but it’s that bad.”

While no injuries have been reported to date, numerous jurisdictions would be involved if there ever were, depending on where the incident took place.

The southern portion of the Moffett Channel is located within the Sunnyvale city limits. The northern part of the channel crosses into the jurisdiction of the city of San Jose. Guadalupe Slough, which is owned by the state of California, is entirely within San Jose.

Sunnyvale’s Treatment Pond 1 is mostly in Sunnyvale, but a large part of Treatment Pond 2 is actually within the San Jose city limits.

Duck hunting season generally starts in mid-October and runs for 100 days.

There are specific restrictions that the city of Sunnyvale can enforce. Hunters are not allowed to hunt from levees within the city, and discharging a firearm within the city limits is also prohibited, as is misuse of park property.

Hunting within 150 yards of an occupied building is prohibited per state Fish and Game code, and removal of birds or waterfowl in the city is not allowed as long as signs are posted, which currently there are not.

During the Aug. 26 council meeting, council members discussed adding markers to help better locate specific incidents as well as adding an educational component to better clarify where hunting is acceptable.

“This is a multi-jurisdictional problem, and that’s where this is really difficult because it limits what we can and can’t do,” Councilman Glenn Hendricks said during the meeting. “I think to be able to clarify where is it appropriate to hunt from and where is it not, I think that would be a big change to what’s currently in existence today, because there’s not a whole lot of clarity around that.”

The city will install approximately 15 more signs to help spell out rules that will be enforced and will consult with stakeholders about creating markers and where to place them.