Urgent Update for North Shooting Area!!

In their sights
New range, total forest shooting ban under consideration

By Trevor Hughes
The Daily Times-Call

Thursday afternoon found Denverite Dustin Collins and a group of five friends firing their guns with abandon at the Left Hand Canyon off-road area below Jamestown.

The six — a mix of flight instructors and college students — had driven up to the popular shooting area to practice their aim with a variety of firearms, from a 9 mm pistol to a .22-caliber rifle and a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle.

The ground around them was littered with brass casings, shotgun shells and ammunition cartons. The hillside into which they were shooting was littered with an old refrigerator, computer and television casings and a pair of shot-up fire extinguishers. The echoes of just-fired rounds rang for a few more seconds on the rocky hills and in the crisp spring air.

Collins found out about the shooting area a few years ago from a buddy who went to the University of Colorado, and he has been coming to the area just up Left Hand Canyon from U.S. Highway 36 ever since.

It’s a relatively remote but convenient site in the national forest where no one really hassles shooters, even after several fires have been sparked in recent years by people shooting nearby.

But all that might be about to change.

The U.S. Forest Service, in the form of Boulder Ranger Christine Walsh, is considering changes to how and where recreational shooting is permitted on the 160,000 acres of Arapaho- Roosevelt National Forest she’s charged with managing. And faced with increasing numbers of people driving to the forest to hike, bike, drive and shoot, a total ban on recreational shooting is now on the table.

Hunting would not be affected regardless of the decision.

“We are going to make a decision about what parts of the district are appropriate for recreational shooting and which ones are not,” Walsh said Thursday. “We don’t have our minds made up.”

Among the options being considered are a total ban; creation of a formal, managed shooting range; or no changes. Walsh is calling a series of public meetings over the next few months to gather input from as many people as possible, seeking solutions she and her staff may not have considered.

The area where Collins and his friends were shooting has evolved into the busiest shooting area in the district, although there are actually few regulations limiting recreational shooting on Forest Service property, which is managed to be a “land of many uses.” And while recreational shooting has a strong tradition on public lands, more and more people are being pushed onto Forest Service property as local governments buy open space and close it to certain uses.

Boulder County, for instance, prohibits any kind of shooting, camping or campfires on its open space. The city of Boulder, Longmont and Larimer County have similar regulations outside developed campgrounds.

Walsh’s position as district ranger makes her responsible for about 25 percent of the land in Boulder County, more than any other single government or private landowner.

“It’s really a limited resource and almost unlimited demand,” she said.

Collins said he and his friends drive to Left Hand Canyon because it’s already trashed. They consider themselves environmentally friendly people and decided to contain their shooting to an area that’s pretty well known for it, rather than traveling into a more remote, pristine area.

“We know that since this area is screwed up so bad, we should stay here,” Collins said as he unjammed a rifle.

While Walsh said she understands that kind of sentiment, the Forest Service can’t simply abandon an area for one use without properly managing it. And she said her district in the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest, the second-busiest forest in the country, lacks the money to properly supervise and monitor use.

Shooting in the forest is the No. 1 complaint about which people call Walsh’s office, above illegal camping and off-roading and trespassing.

The solution, she suggested, may be a formal shooting range constructed by perhaps the National Guard and run by a private contractor who would charge an entrance fee. But that may be too difficult, which is why a total closure for shooting also is in the mix.

“Siting it in Boulder County is going to be a challenge. We will try to make it happen. We know there is a need,” Walsh said. “Finding the right balance for shooting is going to be a challenge. We are the most urban district in the forest. We have to manage the use in a way that doesn’t sacrifice the forest.”

The first round of public meetings is set for sometime in April.

Acknowledging the likely controversy that will be sparked by the process, Walsh asked, “Do you know of any really big rooms we can use?”

Trevor Hughes can be reached at 303-684-5220, or by e-mail at thughes@times-call.com.