This Saturday we had a clean up event of some of ours heavily impacted shooting sites. We
did this in partnership with groups like SOLVE, Dumpstoppers, and Northwest Firearms dot com
who really helped us recruit a large number of folks who came out and put in a lot of
time and effort on a Saturday morning to really clean up and get these place back to a more,
nicer condition. We had a great showing of around 50 people came out and most of them
are shooters themselves. And they did a great job of showing how much they care about the
land they use on a daily basis and really land that is there public land. And really
picked up after themselves and the trash that others who are people less responsible have
left behind after shooting. I was actually very pleased with the turn out that we had.
I think one of the key elements that we have been missing thus far in our attempts to get
a handle on recreational target shooting is the involvement of our partners. Although
we've had lots of support from Dumpstoppers in picking up debris, we haven't been able
to engage a lot of the members of the public and we were able to do that through this particular
event. And I heard about it from our gun club: Douglas Ridge Rifle Club, and one of the members
just happened to mention it and I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to get
involved. I do a lot of this stuff on my own but it's nice to see so much participation.
It's really unfortunate that there's a small minority of folks who don't take care of the
land and don't practice safe shooting behaviors or responsible shooting behaviors in terms
of taking care of the resources around them. So that minority is really impacting, one
us from the Forest Service side in terms of the world load we have of maintaining these
sites and making sure we have a safe setting for our publics, but also it puts at risk
the ability of those who are responsible shooters to be able to enjoy themselves because we
need to be able to control the impacts that occur from shooting whether that's safety
or for resource protection. It's such a beautiful country and in general the Forest Service
is great and we don't want to come out here and see a dump-type setting. And this is a
part of a larger effort that the Mt. Hood National Forest is engaged in to help us get
a handle on some of our heavily impacted shooting sites where we have some resources that are
being damaged, some unsafe behavior that is threatening the public, but while we are still
making sure that we are educating folks about how to shoot responsibly and how to take care
of their public lands, while protecting their right to continue to enjoy them for target
shooting for those who do it in a responsible manner and who are careful of other users
around them while they do their shooting. Personally I pick-up my brass because I reload
but I pick it up in general even when I'm just out here after I'm done shooting I walk
around and pick-up brass and anything else that I can just to do my share and I think
that if more people would do that, if you take out more than you bring in, eventually
this wouldn't be an issue. So yeah, I really want to thank all the folks who came out and
put a lot of energy into the clean-up today. We couldn't have done it, i wouldn't have
been a successful day without our partners from SOLVE, without Dumpstoppers who helped us
with the machinery and trucks and being able to haul off the large amount of trash that
we had and then from the great turn out we got largely from the Northwest Firearms dot
com website, the forum that helped spread the word and helped us get the message out
that we needed help for this weekend to clean up these sites so big thank you goes out to
all of those folks. The people who showed up seemed so dedicated in wanting to make
a continued effort towards improving the conditions of our National Forest system land. I know
a lot of times, our lands get loved to death and it just is inspiring to me in my position
to see that other people are also willing and wanting to assist us in our missions to
be good stewards of the land. I only see good things coming from this and it makes me hopeful
for the future.