Crackdown on Hunters Aims at Archers in Combat Togs

Surprise encounters between joggers and combat-clad archers in the foothills of Encino have prompted a city crackdown on hunters in Los Angeles’ Santa Monica Mountains.

City officials said Tuesday that police and state game wardens have been instructed to begin enforcing a little-known 11-year-old ban on bow-and-arrow hunting within city limits, which includes most of the rugged mountain range east of Topanga Canyon.

Others have speculated that groups of camouflaged, uniformed men observed recently at dawn near the Encino Reservoir are not hunters, but self-styled commandos.

“They were dressed in combat fatigues and their faces were painted black. They looked like ‘Rambo,’ like they’d just stepped out of a cheap movie,” said jogger Lou Levy, a retired UCLA professor who has spotted the archers on six occasions.

“I don’t think they’re up there hunting. I think they’re just playing macho games. But, when you come across three or four guys with bows and arrows, you don’t ask.”

Closed to Archers and Shooters

The sightings have led to complaints from several Encino residents, according to Tom Brady, a deputy to City Councilman Marvin Braude, who represents much of the south San Fernando Valley.

“There are too many people around and the Santa Monica Mountains are too heavily populated for people to be up there hunting,” Brady said. “We’ve sent a letter to state Fish and Game saying we want them to inform hunters that the city’s mountain area is closed to both bows and arrows and firearms.”

Brady said local city police divisions have also been instructed to begin enforcing the archery hunting ban, enacted by the City Council in 1974.

Sgt. Jim Thompson, day watch commander at the West Valley Police Station in Reseda, said enforcement will be difficult because of the irregular city boundary along the Valley’s southwest rim near Mulholland Drive. Archery hunting is legal in certain unincorporated county areas.

Besides, although bow-and-arrow hunting is illegal within the city, target practice is legal.

“I don’t know what we can do about guys out playing commando in open countryside,” Thompson said, noting that paramilitary-style survivalist activity is becoming common in the Valley. “Last year, I saw a whole squad of guys in combat uniform drilling over at CSUN one Sunday. I knew it wasn’t the ROTC.”

State Fish and Game Department officials said Tuesday that their enforcement of the city’s archery hunting law will hinge upon a review of the ordinance. They said they were unaware of the bow-and-arrow hunting ban until told of it by a reporter.

“I don’t know at this point whether the city has any jurisdiction over archers,” said Russell Goodrich, Fish and Game Department’s regional inspector for the south half of the state. “I’d question the authority of such a law in rural areas until I see it.”

Tony Mattias, one of 19 state game wardens assigned to Los Angeles County, said the archers observed south of Encino were probably hunters, not survivalists.

“Bow hunters are a dedicated group. They have to get close to take a deer, sometimes to within 50 feet. That’s probably why they were in camouflage,” Mattias said.

He said the deer season for archers ran from July 13 to Sept. 22. The firearm hunting season in authorized areas ran from Aug. 10 to Sept. 22. Both types of hunters are required to obtain hunting licenses and deer tags.

City Council aide Brady said county “firearms closure” maps distributed to hunters by state and county authorities specify that archers must stay at least 150 yards from homes and roads. But he said the maps fail to tell hunters that all city areas are closed to bows and arrows.

No agency has kept records on bow-and-arrow accidents in the city’s hills, but the potential for injury or damage is great, Brady said.

“The deer in the Santa Monica Mountains are fed by people and become domesticated,” he said. “You can just see some hunter following one into a yard and hitting a house when he shoots.”