Urban Hunting in Joplin: My Concerns About Safety and Human Impact

In my opinion, Joplin’s urban hunting ordinance exposes a hidden danger: homeless encampments in wooded parcels where poachers and bowhunters may operate. From my perspective, this isn’t just about wildlife it’s about policy gaps, neighborhood trust, and the human cost of decisions made without safeguards.

As the ordinance takes effect, I believe a quiet danger grows in the woods one that few officials are willing to name. It’s not just about deer. It’s about people.

Local advocate Brian Evans recently shared photos and commentary on his public Facebook page, documenting homeless encampments in wooded areas across Joplin. His post, Joplin’s Homeless Crisis: The High Cost of Enabling, describes how public spaces and private parcels have become informal shelters for unhoused individuals many living in tents, brush shelters, or abandoned structures near creeks and rail lines.

These same wooded parcels may now be subject to bowhunting under Joplin’s ordinance, which allows harvests on private land of one acre or more. In my view, the lack of signage, verification systems, and protections for anyone living in those woods is alarming. Do landowners even know unhoused people are living on their land? Probably not.

 

image of shared space, children, deer and homeless people, all in Joplin Woods where urban hunting may occur

🎯 The Overlap No One’s Regulating

From my perspective, the risks include:

  • Poachers using forged permission slips to access private land
  • Bows and silenced firearms allowing quiet, undetected kills
  • Encampments mistaken for wildlife movement
  • No ordinance requiring safety checks or human presence screening

To me, this isn’t just a loophole it’s a lethal blind spot. Evans’ documentation confirms what many residents already know: Joplin’s wooded parcels are not empty. They’re occupied. And they’re unprotected.

 

📎 Supporting Sources

 

🛑 What Needs to Change

In my opinion, Joplin’s ordinance should be amended to:

  • Require human safety screening before hunting on wooded parcels
  • Enforce signage and buffer zones near known encampments
  • Prohibit hunting in areas with documented human presence
  • Include mandatory reporting and verification for permission slips

Until then, I believe Joplin’s woods remain a volatile mix people, deer, and hunters sharing space under a bowhunting policy that never accounted for the risks.

Author’s Disclaimer

This article reflects my personal perspective, research, and advocacy within Joplin, Missouri. All critiques, scenarios, and recommendations are grounded in documented events and public records. I support ethical wildlife management, ecological integrity, and trauma‑informed policy. No part of this article should be interpreted as opposition to responsible conservation efforts.