MCMINNVILLE, Ore. (AP) -- The Williams family has spent 17 mostly enjoyable years living across from the ninth hole of the Bayou Golf Course on scenic Southwest Bayou Drive.
They have gorgeous green views beckoning from their bedroom, dining room, family room and kitchen windows.
Unsettling late fall incidents, however, have intruded last year and this year.
The first came about 5:30 one morning last fall. A startling series of gunshots had everyone getting out of bed to see what was causing the commotion.
To their horror, Claudia Williams said, they spotted a group of rifle-toting men decked out in camouflage with hunting dogs at their sides.
"They were slaughtering the geese," she said. "We had a direct view of what was going on.
"They were setting up decoys, hiding behind bushes and shooting them. It was upsetting to watch."
Williams found it so upsetting she called law enforcement authorities.
She was told that licensed hunters are free to hunt on private property during the season with the owner's permission. She learned the Canada goose season was open the 2010-11 season runs Nov. 20-Jan. 12 and Feb. 5-March 9 and the hunters had permission.
It has happened several times this year, the most recent last Wednesday morning.
"It started at the first hint of light," she said. "It woke us up. It's loud. It started about 6:45, and went on for at least two hours.
If hunters were out that early, they were in clear violation of the law, because goose hunting is prohibited before 8 a.m. and after 3 p.m., according to Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Michelle Dennehy.
On a Sunday morning earlier this month, the family looked out and spotted two hunters on the course.
"I yelled at them, Please don't do this. We can see what you are doing and it's upsetting to us," she said. "They just ignored us."
The following Wednesday, family members were having breakfast when they looked out to see someone carrying a live goose by its neck, according to Williams. She said it was fighting for its life.
"We're back to the same thing," she said. "I have tried to have a dialogue with the owner so I can explain to him how this is directly impacting people who are watching this happen.
I've made seven or eight calls to him, and none of them have been returned. I have talked to workers at the course. And I have called the Yamhill County Mediators (now known as Your Community Mediators)."
Greg and Irmi Brown, who bought into the Bayou after many years owning and operating the old Riverwood Golf Course in Dundee, have no qualms about sending hunters out onto the course in search of geese.
Greg Brown said geese are attracted to ponds, water features, grassy fairways and manicured greens. In large numbers, he said, they inflict a lot of damage, especially on the greens.
He said the goose problem is worst at holes 6 and 7, due to the proximity of the pond gracing the Williams family's prized view.
"They can peck huge holes in the greens," Brown said. "We can fill them, but this time of the year, you're not going to get anything to grow. In the spring, it takes a while for those holes to seal. And they poop all over the greens. Golfers don't want to chip to a green and then have to walk in it."
Williams said research shows there are other ways course owners can deal with the problem. Larry Gilhuly, Northwest Director of the United States Golf Association, said conversations he has had with officials and two Portland courses supports that claim.
Brown insists, "Nothing else really works."
He added, "We use licensed hunters. They're looking for places to hunt. This is a public course on private property. They are abiding by all the rules that are set down. They're not out to slaughter the geese. They hunt what is allowed."
The state's fish and wildlife agency is well aware of the affinity of geese for golf courses and the damage they can do. It comes down firmly with the ownership side.
"Hunting is legal," Dennehy said. "The season is open. Hunters need to have the appropriate licenses and tags, and the landowner must allow the hunt. If everything is in place, the hunt is legal." The daily bag limit is four dark geese and four white geese.
Within the bag limit of dark geese, a hunter may not have more than two Cackling Canada or two Aleutian Canada combined. If a hunter harvests a Dusky Canada goose, the permit is invalid.
Dennehy said Canada geese that have traditionally wintered in the warmer climates of California have been increasingly remaining in Oregon or making their home in Oregon year-around in recent years. She said they cause farmers and golf course operators a lot of grief.
Bob Fluter, superintendent at McMinnville's Michelbook Country Club, said he can attest to that.
He said a couple of flocks appear to have taken up permanent residence there. He said you can look out at times and see up to 100 geese on the grounds.
"They come in and never seem to quite 100 percent go away," Fluter said. "They may be gone for a couple of weeks, but they come back and hang around. They don't fly on."
"They look for a golf course, a park, an open field for food," Fluter said. "They're going after food. We're a great source of food for them. And we're looked at as a safe place. There are not many predators around."
Shooting is prohibited inside city limits. And unlike the Bayou, Michelbook enjoys that distinction.
"They'll fly into an area and just start chewing on the grass," Fluter said. "They're going after insects that are in the ground, so when they land on the greens, they'll just chewing at them. They can cause a fair amount of damage."
They leave a nasty mess, too. And he said there isn't much that can really be done about it.
"We don't have a lot of tools to get rid of them," Fluter said. "Our tools are curtailed compared to agricultural properties and facilities that are outside the city limits."
He added, "Early in the season, one of the best ways we have found to head them off is to turn a sprinkler head on them. That is effective. However, when it becomes a pattern, they learn and it's not a big deal to them anymore."
Two courses in the Portland area, Heron Lakes and Waverly, say they have discovered a non-lethal solution that does work a rifle-like device emitting a green laser beam.
Heron Lakes borders the Columbia River and Waverley borders the Willamette River. So geese are a huge problem both places.
Superintendent Jess Goodling of Heron Lakes and Assistant Superintendent Scott Kirkpatrick of Waverley say a single laser beam will send a whole flock into flight from 200 yards away.
