Please lend your support for sensible rules that respect Sunriver owners’ right to protect their native plants on their own property from destruction or damage by deer, beavers, porcupines, and other animals.

TO THE SROA BOARD OF DIRECTORS

STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES
We, the undersigned owner(s), value Sunriver’s wildlife and its native trees, shrubs, and flowers. We adhere to the following foundational principles guiding our community:

“From its inception in 1968 the intent of the planners, ecologists and developers alike was to create a community which would provide an unusually attractive place to live, appealing especially to sports enthusiasts, outdoorsmen, retirees, artists, and others attracted to a controlled area of natural scenic beauty. The clear clean air, the river, the river banks, the meadows, the marshes, the lakes, the trees, the wildflowers and wildlife constitute a community treasure.”

— Consolidated Plan of Sunriver

These founding principles recognized that Sunriver is a “controlled natural area,” which includes substantial development embedded within a mixture of remaining natural landscapes and substantially altered areas of residential, commercial, and recreational development. Within that context, Sunriver’s founding plan called out “trees and wildflowers” on an equal footing with “wildlife” as “community treasures.”

As stewards of the Sunriver founders’ legacy,
we cannot cavalierly disregard
the emphasis these visionaries
placed on native plants as “treasures.”

Maintaining the balance among our community treasures requires protecting native plants, as well as wildlife. The Sunriver founders recognized that development was to be expected and would serve multiple objectives, including protection for all of our “community treasures.”

In many cases, structural barriers, such as fenced exclosures, are the only reliable way to protect a rich variety of native plants from depredation by Sunriver’s abundant and “tame” deer, as well as beavers, porcupines, and other wildlife.

Judicious use of fencing to protect Aspens, other native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers is no more in conflict with Sunriver’s “controlled natural areas” than strict regulations against felling legacy Ponderosa’s or requirements for ladder fuel reduction to prevent forest fires.

We believe that the vast majority of Sunriver owners understand that the Consolidated Plan of Sunriver left to owners many personal choices for the development of their homes and landscaping. The results of decades of that freedom are quite evident in the innumerable architectural variations and widely divers approaches to landscaping.

Not every Sunriver owner will “like” some of the choices made by other owners. Some will no doubt find the many “urban” landscapes, comprising non-native plants, turf lawns, and irrigation systems, undesirable and out of place in Sunriver’s “natural scenic beauty.”

Ye, other owners may find rows of firewood or protective fencing not to their liking. But an essential principle in the Sunriver vision as it has been lived for decades is that owners’ reasonable choices that don’t directly and concretely have negative impacts on the natural environment, wildlife, or other owners are generally tolerated.

To illustrate this point, there has been no conflict among owners about the long-standing prohibition against extensive property line fences because those would arguably impede wildlife.

In contrast, properly installed exclosures have no direct or concrete impact on wildlife or other owners. Although such exclosures are visible, they typically have far less visual presence than residential structures, asphalt driveways, solid rows of firewood, play structures, or even irrigated turf lawns. To date, there is no evidence of general desire among Sunriver owners to prohibit reasonable use of protective fencing. Yet such a proposal has become the subject of intense controversy.

We believe that broad, robust engagement of Sunriver owners
in the development of rules governing native plant protections
is the necessary means to resolve this issue.

PETITION
Based on the above principles, we, the undersigned Sunriver property owners, petition the Board of Directors as follows.

In regard to proposed new or amended rules in the SROA Design Committee Manual of Rules and Procedures that would govern owners’ methods of protecting native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers on the owners’ own property (“proposed rules”), we respectfully request that the Board fully inform and engage all Sunriver owners in determining the Sunriver community’s general intent regarding proposed rules.

Specifically, we request that the Board take the following actions:

1. Direct the SROA Design Committee to:
   1. Include in all meeting agendas any planned discussion of proposed rules.
   2. Provide an owners’ comment period at the beginning of each committee meeting at which proposed rules are on the agenda.
   3. Follow the same webcast practices that are followed for the Board of Directors’ work sessions and meetings.
   4. Record and publish committee meeting minutes, including consideration of proposed rules.
2. Assess and report the general extent and nature of owners’ current use of fencing materials and other structural barriers to protect native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers on the owners’ own property from damage or destruction by deer, beavers, porcupines, and other animals.
3. Create and publish findings, based on “substantial, relevant evidence” as required under Section 6.07 of the Consolidated Plan of Sunriver, to support proposed rules.
4. Provide notice of proposed rules to all owners, including posting on the SROA website proposed rules and supporting findings.
5. Allow a minimum of 60 days following notice to owners of proposed rules for owners to submit comments prior to adoption of proposed rules and make all submitted owners’ comments available for review.

Supported by the following Sunriver property owner(s):