Hunting Preserve Near Hartland Elementary School Draws Concern from Residents

During Tuesday night’s Hartland Township meeting, resident Barb Krueger addressed the board of trustees requesting an update to a concern regarding a local game preserve that shares a border with one of Hartland’s elementary schools. 

Variety Farms Game Preserve, located at 11585 Dunham Road, is open to the public and provides an area of fields and forests for bird hunters. It is also located in close proximity to Round Elementary and according to Township Manager James Wickman, the preserve has been in existence since before special use permits were required. 

Wickman also said the owners were working with the planning department on a general site plan and cooperating with “efforts to try to keep a proper distance away from the school property” and explained they were working to confirm those distances on area maps. 

“They’re already well in excess of any state laws regarding that type of activity near school property," Wickman said. "And I think when it’s all said and done, we’ll have a much better handle of how that’s being controlled."

In November, B.J. McDevitt, the son of a woman who found a bullet in her home, commented on a Hartland Patch story regarding the close proximity of the game preserve to the school.

“If the shot came from where I suspect it did, then Round Elementary School was in the path as well,” McDevitt wrote. “I have found hunting blinds in trees on school property less than 20 feet from the playground. Two weeks ago, there was an ATV "hidden" on school land just behind the playground, covered with a camouflage tarp. There is a hunting preserve directly next to the playground, and gunfire is all too common there.”