In Mornas (Vaucluse), hunters are wondering who is destroying their tree stands. These 1.50-2 m towers are erected in the wild to make hunting safer: the bullet is no longer fired horizontally, but towards the ground at an angle of 30 degrees.
For several years now, the watchtowers of the sixty Mornas hunters have been deliberately damaged. The towers are sawed off, torn from their bases and attached to the cars with cables. A few years ago, there were 21 watchtowers. Now there are just 9!
The hunters speak of “sabotage” and are worried about the future of their hunting area: the 1,100 hectares of the Uchaux hill are also very popular with hikers and mountain bikers. The Mornas hunters have not lodged a complaint, but they are concerned about the sharing of nature.
Near the hunting cabin in the pine forest, the debris from the watchtowers piles up. Christian Jodar, treasurer of the Amicale des Chasseurs de Mornas (Mornas hunters’ association) calls the place “the watchtower cemetery”. He is indignant: “This is sabotage, of planned and organized actions”. Sylvain Ribe, president of the Mornas hunters’ association, counted the number of stands: “We put up 21, leaving 9. The rest have been destroyed. The four legs are set in concrete blocks, but they come with cars and cables; they shoot to knock down or break the watchtowers. And the latest thing is that they’re partially sawing out the floor of the watchtowers. You can’t see it with the naked eye, but when you climb on them, you can break your face with a gun”. The president recalls a hunter from Mornas who suffered a head injury in a fall after the sawed floor of a watchtower collapsed.
The hunters’ president believes that the opponents of hunting are mistaken, as watchtowers are installed to make hunting safer: “I think this is pure vandalism by the anti-hunters. It’s a pity: these watchtowers improve safety for hunters and non-hunters alike, because they’re shoot-to-kill. We shoot from tree stands with the axis at 30 degrees to the ground, so that the bullet sticks in the ground instead of flying miles away horizontally. It’s safety pure and simple. This damage to the tree stands is damaging for everyone, hunters and non-hunters alike.
[…] The Mornas hunters explain that they are not the only ones affected, as hunting stands are being deliberately destroyed all over France.
Translated by Unoffensive Animal
