The Environmental Beat

Isaacson School for New Media project

[theenvironmentalbeat-blog]

Credits

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  Contributors:

Julie Albrecht

Keleigh Bell

Jodi Buchan

Tim Faust

Keenan Gipe

Jeff Steck

Wendy Turner

Kimberly Vega Terrazas

  Professor:

Michael Conniff

[theenvironmentalbeat-blog]

Jason's review of trigger trash

Resources:

Forest Service, BLM, Northwest Firearms, Shooting Roundtable, Treadlightly.org

Issue:

Open dumping, vandalism, responsible land use,

Susan Reece- Department of Conservation, NRA affiliations- “You shoot it, you own it.”

Whose responsibility is it to get the message out?

What are people’s environmental and recreational ethics?

Nationally, between the Forest Service and the BLM, there is over 400 million acres of land that people are allowed to shoot on.

BLM says that illegal dumping is the number one problem on public lands.

Someone will dump a couch or t.v. and someone will come by and shoot it.

People dump and/or shoot lots of electronics, couches and appliances.

What do people value?

Explanations:

It costs money to join the shooting range.

People feel entitled in the use public lands.

The recession makes it more difficult for low-income citizens to utilize the landfill.

Not all municipalities have curbside trash and yard debris pick-up.

People perceive yard debris less as trash.

Hubbard Mesa Open Recreation Area- 24,000 acres

High Country 4 Wheeler’s Club organizes the clean up day.

They are partnered with White River Trail Runners, BLM, Redi-Service and MRI.

Don’t pick up needles or meth labs, don’t hurt your back, sign in, lunch, get water and trash bags.

Legally, people can shoot anywhere in the open-recreation area.

The dumpsters are donated for free for the day.

The charge for dumping the trash at the landfill is half-price for the clean up day.

They began getting grants in2008 or 2009 to put in barriers and pit toilets.

Kay Hopkins originally started the clean up.

In 2009, they filled 9 dump truck loads, that’s 10 tons of trash from Hubbard Mesa.

They retrieved an entire semi-truck full of abandoned cars.

5 or 6 years ago, during a clean up day, a guy dumped a truck load of yard debris out of a commercial truck.  They confronted him and he acted like it was no problem at first, but later went back and cleaned up that pile and returned later to clean up a few more truck loads.

Some volunteers say the area has less trash now than when they started and some say otherwise.  The number of dumpsters filled each year reveal less trash.

There have been as many as 50 to 60 volunteers in previous years.  It depends on weather and other factors like kids and sports or the combination of the two.

They used to get prizes donated.  One year there were 50 volunteers and 60 prizes.  Since the recession, there have been fewer prizes donated to the point that they don’t ask anymore.

High Country 4 Wheeler’s Club has 13 trails, Hubbard Mesa and Squirrel Valley they adopted to maintain and clean up.

High Country 4 Wheeler’s Club will celebrate 40 years in 2014.

Greg Noss- Member of High Country for 23 years.

“Overall, the Forest Service and BLM land is cleaner today than ever.  More groups are taking care of things.  This group has always done volunteering clean up work.”

He organizes adopt-a-trail activities and such throughout the year.

“If there was a free day to dump electronics and such there would be less dumping of it on public lands.  There’s no curbside trash pick up anymore...”

He says since the mountain bikers found the place about 10 years ago, there has been less dumping because of more people being around.  There are high school kids who go there to party and if they get run off from there they will just go somewhere else and possibly drive even further.

He spends 2-3 days per summer month doing clean ups and such.  Someone has to do it.

Everyone in the club does it.

Me, “Would you do it if you weren’t in a club?”  Greg, “Yes.”  Me, “Did your parents do this kind of stuff?”  Greg, “No, they didn’t.”

Greg hunts and enjoys the outdoors.  He enjoys being outside.  He says to be conscious of what’s around you and to be a steward of the land.

Jenny Isenhart- President of High Country 4 Wheelers Club

“Shooters aren’t approachable.”  This area was going to be shut down completely.  They approached people to try to help and they were indignant.

Nikki- Volunteer

She’s attended at least 10 clean ups and adopt-a-trail days.

“This is a place where people come out a lot and recreate.  People tend to trash the area.”  Refrigerators, TV’s, couches, etc.  One year, someone had filled a camper with hay and blown it up.  150 bags of shotgun shells.  One year there was a buffalo carcass.

She thinks it’s the younger generation that does a lot of the destruction and littering.

She says it’s unfortunate, but at least there are groups like theirs that clean the places up…someone has to.

Kathy- Volunteer

She walks dogs in the area and they like to help keep it cleaned up.  Dogs can be off leash there, which she likes.  There is lots of trash, she says, like clay pigeons and shotgun shells, old tires, etc.

Barry and Jenny- Volunteers for 4 years with the High Country 4 Wheeler’s Club

Trevor and Bobbi- Shooting guns with 3 other adults and a young child

Bobbi is from Wyoming and she’s been shooting guns most of her life.  They both said they load their own cartridges so they pick those up and always pick up their trash.  Bobbi said the trash is not as much of a problem where she is from in Wyoming.  She thinks people respect the land more in Wyoming.

The group as a whole was very defensive about having their pictures taken and did not want us to do so.  They were shooting assault rifles and they didn’t want to get caught up in any of the controversy that is going on in the public arena about gun issues.  Individually, they were nice and cooperative and shared concerns about litter and trigger trash.

Brad Moss- Local landowner of around 280 acres

He approaches people who are dumping yard trash and asks them what they are doing.  He know a lot of them from around the community.  He is surprised at how many people think its alright to dump their yard trash on public land.  They don’t see anything wrong with it.  He told one guy he would go and dump his yard trash on the roadside beside their house and they said it was not the same.

He says there are many people working for the BLM in and out of the area and none of them goes there and talks to people, cite tickets, warnings or does anything about the problem.  Brad thinks those government employees would be a great resource for making a change there.

Brad observed that when the BLM put up a fence with a cattle gap, it stopped almost all of the dumping on the other side of the fence because people thought it was private land.  He says he doesn’t have problems with people dumping on his land.

He once made an orange sign and put it up that said “Smile, you’re on camera.”  He said that stopped most of it in that area for a while.  No one even shot it for a while.  Then one day he saw a handicapped guy in a van parked on the side of the road and the guy was shooting the sign with a .45 caliber handgun.  Brad asked the man what he was doing and why and the man said that’s all he could do.  Brad told him to do it somewhere else.

Summary:

Signs seem to work, like the orange “Smile, you’re on camera,” sign Brad made.

Gates that make people think they are on private property.

Free dump days and/or lower fees at the landfill for electronics and appliances might help, especially in a depressed economy.

Almost all of the volunteers were with a group.

The volunteers seem to clean up because someone has to do it or the government will close the land to the public.  This has happened many times before.

Illegal dumping and littering is a major issue on public lands.

The evidence was everywhere we went on the property.  There was a plethora of shells and casings as well as trash of all sorts with bullet holes in it.

[theenvironmentalbeat-blog]

COOKED: Douglas Wight Interview

Ethical Gun Dealer Talks Trash

Silt, Colorado—Friends of the National Rifle Association (NRA) member Douglas Wight is not a friend of trigger trash: “If you can haul it in, you can haul it out.”

Douglas Wight sells guns and has a target shooting range in his backyard. He grew up shooting with his grandfather and father—they were hunters, not target shooters.  Back around 1970 when Wight went to Junior High in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, schools even taught Hunter Education.  Nowadays he teaches his grandchildren how to shoot. Wight believes education and heritage lead to responsible shooting. He thinks the younger generation is lacking both.

“The pigs that disrespect [public land] haven’t had heritage in shooting,” Wight says. “They watch video games and buy guns to shoot—they’re not taught respect.”

Unlike hunting, people do not have to take a class to shoot at a range or on public land. Shooting ranges have no requirements on how to use a firearm. Anybody can buy a gun and use it without any training. They are not taught how to use sights or not to carry a loaded rifle or where to point it. Wight tries to give the buyer a safety lesson when he sells a gun, stressing safe handling, safe shooting, safe storage. He believes that is what the NRA is all about.

“By virtue of existence,” Wight says, “it’s about shooting sports, sportsmanship training, marksmanship.”

Wight helps the NRA with their mission through his activities with the Friends of the NRA—a grassroots fundraising group. They raise money through banquets and raffles held every two weeks, with fifty percent of their funds going to the national office and fifty percent distributed around the state of Colorado. Sometimes chapters raise more than they can give away locally.

Friends of the NRA in the Glenwood Springs, Colorado area has given money to the Department of Wildlife (DOW) for Hunter Education classes, to 4-H activities, and to Boy Scouts organizations. Wight says no one in his area has applied for money to cleanup a shooting area even though he believes trigger trash is a growing problem on public lands.

“It is difficult to monitor,” Wight says. “Federal employees do not work on the weekend when people are out shooting. It is like speeding,” he adds. “If you don’t catch them, you can’t do anything about it.”

With trigger trash comes public access closures—one of the main issues for the lobbying arm of the NRA.

Wight sums up the consequences: “If you’re a bad neighbor, they’re gonna kick you out.” 

[theenvironmentalbeat-blog]

COOKED: Shooting Trash Epidemic on Public Land

Shooting Trash Epidemic on Public Land

Target shooting debris left behind on public lands is a major problem across the United States for the two largest federal land stewards: the United States Forest Service (USFS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Together they manage 449 million acres of public land.

According to Northwest Colorado BLM Public Affairs Specialist Dave Boyd: “Virtually all of [BLM land] is open to target shooting.”

Washington office USFS Shooting Liaison Jamie Schwartz says shooting on National Forest Service land has been a tradition “since inception of the Forest Service Reserves.”

Public land recreationists include target shooters, Off Highway Vehicle (OHV) users, hikers, dog walkers, runners, and mountain bikers.

The impact of human use, coupled with illegal dumping, generates trash left behind in quantities Washington Office BLM Public Affairs Specialist Tom Gorey identifies as: “[T]he most common type of environmental crime on lands managed by the Bureau.”

 “Illegal dumping on America’s public lands is a historical problem,” Gorey says. “One that poses increasingly significant public heath, environmental, and economic challenges.”

Gorey adds it is a problem shared by local, state, and federal land managers.

Federal land managers have Law Enforcement Rules specific to debris and target shooting.

The BLM states that shooting is allowed as long as it: “Does not facilitate and create a condition of littering, refuse accumulation and abandoned personal property. The shooting of any glass bottle, container, or material that would break into small pieces and create a hazard or litter is prohibited. All spent shells or brass are considered litter and must be removed by the shooter.”

USFS laws prohibit: “Possessing or leaving refuse, debris, or litter in any exposed or unsanitary condition.”

Shooters are not the only offenders. People who illegally dump their household trash—and partiers who leave a trail of beer cans behind—add to the debris.

In 2008, Responsible Management conducted a study for Federal land managers and the Shooting Sports Roundtable that includes private groups, such as the National Rifle Association (NRA). Responsible Management gathered information through interviews and focus groups with 1,026 sport shooting participants.

The majority of participants in two out the five featured states—Colorado and Virginia—agreed trash from shooting activities is “The major problem, far exceeding other problems.”

California, Arizona, and Oregon study participants widely agreed that both illegal dumping, along with litter and trash left behind by shooters, are the “major problems witnessed or experienced.”

Participants talked about their frustration with their shooting peers during one of the Responsive Management focus group discussions.

“Several participants remarked that it was unfortunate that litter and environmental damage,” noted the survey report, “happened to be a product of ‘people holding guns.’”

What people holding guns do with the trash constitutes what the BLM, the USFS, and the non-profit group Tread Lightly! label “trigger trash.”

Trigger Trash is what shooters use as targets and leave behind—mannequins, refrigerators, coolers, stuffed animals, propane tanks, paint, aerosol cans, No Shooting signs—along with the spent ammunition litter.

National Rifle Association (NRA) Director of Conservation, Wildlife and Natural Resources Susan Reece believes shooting debris left behind is the responsibility of the shooter.

“The problem is shooters pick up the [debris/trash] and use it as targets,” Reece says. “Once they do that they own it.”

USFS Shooting Liaison Schwartz agrees with Reece: “Once a bullet hole is in it, it’s their trash.”

One example of the national trigger trash problem is two miles northwest of Rifle, Colorado within site of the Roan Plateau at Hubbard Mesa.

Hubbard Mesa is an area of public land managed by the government under the BLM. For over ten years, Hi Country 4 Wheelers OHV club has led the cleanup, collaborating with White River Trail Runners, the BLM, and concerned residents who live near the area. Missing from the volunteer effort are the shooters who create the problem and the local environmental groups—a situation that does not go unnoticed by cleanup participants.  

Volunteer leader Greg Noss said in 2011 they removed ten tons of debris of which “probably half” was trigger trash.

Since then the price of scrap metal has skyrocketed. At the 2013 clean-up they saw fewer large metal items like the shot-up school bus and automobiles they had found in the past. Still, most of the volunteers said trigger trash was the biggest problem.

Recreational shooter and Hi Country 4-Wheelers president Jenny Isenhart describes the scene: “Plywood, bottles, cans, shotgun shells, TVs…anything they can find at their house—obliterated everywhere.”

 “The biggest issue,” Isenhart says, “is shooting trash.”

White River Trail Runners Trail Administrator Dan Alvis is another local recreationist who is cleaning up after shooters: “There’s always days where they must bring a pick-up load and shoot it up.”

In Isenhart’s words, the volunteers “feel passionately” about Hubbard Mesa.

They are motivated to clean up after irresponsible users. Abused public lands are one of the reasons for closures.

Brian Dorr, a shooter and member of both OHV groups, sums up the problem for land managers and the consequences.

“BLM and the government can’t control it,” Dorr says. “They just shut it.”

So whose responsibility is it to keep America clean?

The NRA believes the care of those 449 million public acres is up to federal agencies.

“They are the ones on the ground interacting with the recreationists,” says the NRA’s Reece. “It is up to the land managers to manage the land.”

Both the BLM and the USFS note that they do not have staff or money to manage the clean-ups.  Both the BLM and the USFS believe in community outreach through public education and have invested in campaigns that “work to curb” the problem. And both the BLM and the USFS, along with the NRA, recognize Tread Lightly! as a valuable partner in community education.

USFS Shooting Liaison Schwartz is the program manager for an outdoor ethics initiative through Leave No Trace and Tread Lightly!. Schwartz brought the results of the Responsible Management study to Tread Lightly!, who came up with the messaging campaign on signage: Respected Access is Open Access.

The effects of the campaign are in the early stages of measurement, with Tread Lightly! reporting good results to the USFS in a North Carolina shooting range pilot effort.

The virtual campaign has yet to saturate either NRA or USFS websites, while the BLM posts a copy of the Respected Access is Open Access poster on their shooting information page. As for the hard copy signs posted on public lands, the question is: Are they effective education or are they destined to become trigger trash?

Evidence and opinion from public land field officers and volunteers aim at the latter.

“Signs don’t do any good,” says Hubbard Mesa volunteer Dave Hillbrand. “All they are is targets.”

Whether trigger trash is a sign or spent ammunition, the volunteers always leave the area in better shape. Although even with skid-steer loaders, trailers, buckets, and rakes there is too much to pick up.  Trigger trash is embedded in the earth and tangled in the brush.

Four of the forty volunteers, including Chris Overacker and Gary Miller, are at an undesignated shooting site just off the dirt road, picking up debris. Each year Overacker, an OHV recreationist, NRA member, and longtime clean-up volunteer, concentrates his efforts on the shells, last year filling 6-7 seven garbage bags.

“You can’t pick up all the spent ammo,” Overacker says. “You’d be on your hands and knees for days.”

Miller, who takes several trips up and down the littered landscape, bringing back armloads of trigger trash gives the volunteers a challenge.

“If you can find a can or a bottle without a bullet hole,” Miller says, “I’ll give you a buck.”

“You can’t—impossible,” answers Chris Overacker.

[theenvironmentalbeat-blog]

COOKED: Gun Money and Federal Agencies

Gun Money and Federal Agencies

A circle of money flows from gun organizations and activities to federal agencies and back.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) established their 501(c)(3) nonprofit NRA Foundation Inc. in 2009. To date their nonprofit arm has funded over 1,500 grants with $160 million in awards.

Money for the foundation comes from donations and the Friends of the NRA grassroots groups around the country, who raise money for the foundation via banquet activities. The foundation distributes the tax-exempt funds through several 501(c)(3) channels, including the Traditions of Freedom: Range Facilities and Programs.

There are two range grant programs—one for the private sector and for entities “with a unique federal employer identification number (EIN).” 

The NRA Public Range Fund is a matching grant program targeting the government: “to encourage city and county governments, and state or federal agencies, to work with NRA on efforts to build and improve public ranges across the United States.”

Agencies awarded NRA grant money include the state Fish and Game Conservations and Departments of Natural Resources, along with local county governments.

The United States Forest Service (USFS) is also an awarded friend of the NRA. The USFS has an extensive list of funding partners, including the NRA, but on their A-Z partner list of Non-Governmental Organizations—ranging from the American Canoe Association to the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network—the NRA is not noted.

The Forest Service and the Forest Service Foundation produced a Partnership Guide to outline policies and procedures for collaborations.

The Official Participation in Non-Federal Organizations section of the USFS Partnership Guide identifies Forest Service employees may not: “Endorse the products or services of non-federal organizations” or “Perform services in support of grass roots efforts by the non-federal organization to lobby Congress.”

That is where the greenback turns gray for the USFS, who is currently reviewing their endorsement guidelines.

“When we work with thousands of non-profits with mutual aims,” says USFS National Partnership Coordinator Emily Biesecker, “we fundamentally endorse them by working with them.”

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) opts out of NRA money: “As government agencies we do not receive money from private organizations,” BLM Bureau Grants Policy Manager Kimberley Southerland says.

Washington Office BLM Public Affairs Specialist Tom Gorey confirms: “We are funded by Congress, not private organizations.”

Government money blended with NRA grant money for shooting ranges on public lands comes from The Pittman-Robertson Act.  United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) 2011 Budget Justifications states the funds are to invest in improvements in public access and wildlife populations. The Digest of Federal Resource Laws of Interest to the USFWS also notes funded activities include the construction and operation of public target ranges, along with hunter education.

The program is a result of sportsman, businesses, and policymakers who in 1937 lobbied to redirect money from the sales of firearms and ammunition away from the general treasury—public school funding, etc.—and into The Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Program. Grant awards from The Pittman-Robertson Act fund up to seventy-five percent of a project. States must match twenty-five percent with non-federal money, such as the NRA’s grant dollars. 

USFWS program administers say the “program has been leveraged with more than $1.6 billion in [s]tate matching funds.”

USFWS also reported $388,218,000.00 in “actual receipts” for 2011. The U.S. Treasury has collected $63 billion excise tax dollars for The Pittman-Robertson Act program since its inception.

Loftus Consulting and Southwick Associates, Inc. conducted an analysis of The Pittman-Robertson Act for the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies to determine financial returns to the hunting and shooting industry. The excise taxes paid by manufactures cycle back to them through significant Return On Investment (ROI).

“By investing in improvements to wildlife populations and public access,” notes the analysis authors, “more people would go hunting and the sales of items that generated this tax would increase.”

Their statement is supported by data collected for the financial analysis: “In constant dollars, the estimated return on investment to manufacturers who paid the excise tax (referred to as the “Excise Tax-Related Return On Investment”) ranged between a low of 823% in 1976 to a high of 1,588% in 1997.”

Facilitating the exchange of money for shooting activities is a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) signed between federal land managers and a Shooting Sports Roundtable of 40 private groups (Parties). The National Rifle Association (NRA) is one of those entities and a Party in the MOU. One of primary authors of the MOU is Washington Office USFS Shooting Liaison Jamie Schwartz.

Schwartz says the USFS “brought money to the table” for the MOU. 

The purpose of the MOU is to “expand a framework of cooperation among the Parties at the national, regional, and local levels for planning and implementing mutually beneficial projects and activities related to hunting, fishing, and shooting sports.”

Access to public land for shooting sports is a concern of the NRA. NRA Director of Conservation, Wildlife and Natural Resources Susan Reece says she signed the MOU with the federal land managers and the roundtable to promote recreational shooting and address problems. Shooting problems include public land closures due to safety issues and trash.

The MOU’s Statement of Mutual Interests and Benefits expands on Reece’s words: “The Private Organizations desire to encourage participation in hunting and shooting sports activities on federal lands by providing assistance to the Agencies in connection with access to federal lands and in the location, construction, and improvement of target ranges on federal lands.”

The MOU participant’s goal of access to public land, along with activities funded through The Pittman-Robertson Act and the NRA Foundation, Inc. create opportunities for collaboration:

·         The NRA worked with the DNR on legislation to lower the age of mentored target shooting and hunting in Wisconsin—NRA.org stresses youth programs are “a cornerstone of the NRA.”

·         The NRA provided guidelines for Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty’s Shooting Range Protection Act: “To provide shooting ranges with the ability to maintain their operating capacity, if local opposition to an existing shooting range facility arises.”

·         In a recent 2013 lead-based ammunition lawsuit, the NRA filed a motion to intervene on behalf of the USFS.

These examples of alignment indicate the crisscrossing of billions of dollars—private interests to legislation to NRA to federal agencies—might be about more than money.

[theenvironmentalbeat-blog]

RAW: Gun Money Flow Chart

[theenvironmentalbeat-blog]

RAW: Target Sidebar

TARGETS—Anything a shooter takes aim at can be a target.  

The traditional shooting practice target is a bullseye printed on paper or cardboard. Paper targets can include aiming brackets, designed for hunters using sight-in rifles, or general use downloadable images and outlines of animals or people.

Shooters typically staple or glue paper targets onto a more structured object, such as a box filled with dirt or a piece of plywood. They place their targets at the recommended distance, depending on the type of gun they use: high-powered rifle, small-bore rifle, pistols, revolvers.    

Practice goals—law enforcement, hunting, specific competitions and disciplines—also influence the type of target a shooter chooses:

͏▪ Hostage Torso Steel Target features a swinging head behind the hostage.

▪ Life Size Buck includes audio and visual feedback when shot.

▪ NRA B-18 Targets have scoring rings for the Combat Event.

▪ Clay pigeons, or discs, are thrown from spring-loaded traps.

 Recreational shooters take aim at what interests them. Currently, paper and  mannequin  zombie targets ranging in size, bleeding, and undead features are a popular choice from ten-year-old girls to forty-year-old guys.

Targets for purchase come with a price tag and can cost a few dollars to a few thousand dollars. Free household trash is a common target at undesignated, unsupervised ranges on public lands—especially items like canisters with contents that explode or splatter.    

[theenvironmentalbeat-blog]

RAW: Interview with BLM Grants Policy Manager

4/19/2013 Phone Interview

Kimberly Southerland, (BLM) Bureau Grants Policy Manager

Federal and private industry might collaborate on projects.

“As government agencies we do not receive  money from private organizations.”

I do not know of the receipt of any money from the NRA.

[theenvironmentalbeat-blog]

Pittman-Robertson Act: manufacture’s excise taxes for “for conservation efforts” collected by the U.S. Treasury and administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

·        $63 billion excise tax dollars collected since 1937.

·        $1.6 billion matching state funds.

·        823% - 1,588% Return on Investment (ROI) for manufactures from paid taxes.

·        2011 actual receipts: $388,212,000

[theenvironmentalbeat-blog]

The land of literature is a fairy land to those who view it at a distance, but, like all other landscapes, the charm fades on a nearer approach, and the thorns and briars become visible. ~Washington Irving

      Off To See The Story

My journey in the study of journalism is like a trip to OZ:

Midwestern girl (okay, menopausal woman) follows her dream of going over the (publication) rainbow and crosses the threshold of learning (CMC) to meet the Wicked Witch of the West (fear) to discover she can’t see the  Enchanted Forest for the trees, and while following the editorial red-line road is accompanied by comrades (classmates) who also seek wisdom (credits) from the Wizard (professor Conniff), who pulls testimonials of heart and courage and brains from his little black laptop—the only thing missing is the dog.

For me there is something to be said for heart and courage and brains in writing, especially journalism.

The brain of writing is clarity. Clarity follows the number one rule: Make it easy for the reader. Still, making the story easy for the reader to understand is only one side of the brain. The other side is editing—writing without messing up the grammar, the punctuation, the syntax.  This is a never-ending quest with or without a Diploma in Thinkology.

Courage is a daily test, an exploration into a forest filled with lions and tigers and bears. Really though, these perceived predators are not what is to be feared. Fear itself is the witch. And without a degree, let alone a MFA, the flying monkey on my back is inadequacy. 

Courage in news reporting is the water bucket thrown onto the witch: it is the right to know standing beside curiosity and courtesy.

The heart is the heart. Without heart the story has no beat.

After several weeks of tromping through field and forest and classes in the Fundamentals of Reporting and Intermediate Newswriting and Editing the Wicked Witch of the West and her sister (irrational) are dead. Though I cannot say that there will not be another evil looming in the shadows of the imagination—I hear doubt roams the shadows of the Shire.

Back home, in this land, I have learned that journalism is not just pounding your fingertips on the keyboard to hear yourself speak. That’s blogging—something I’m indulging in right now.  

Taking my voice out of the story and telling the tale through facts and quotes without my personal take took work. Separating myself from the story enables me to view it with objectivity.  It helps me see the trees and sometimes even the bark.

The world is black and white again. There is page and there are words. And there is no place like story. (Where is that damn dog!)

  Quotes that illustrate the Wizard’s wisdom:

Easy reading is damn hard writing. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

He that uses many words for the explaining any subject doth, like the cuttlefish, hide himself for the most part in his own ink. ~John Ray

The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof shit detector. This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it. ~Ernest Hemingway, interview in Paris Review, Spring 1958

[theenvironmentalbeat-blog]

RAW: Public Lands

US Fed land map links

USFS Colorado: http://fsgeodata.fs.fed.us/rastergateway/states-regions/states_zoom.php?stateID=co

USFS US: http://fsgeodata.fs.fed.us/rastergateway/states-regions/states.php

BLM US: http://www.geocommunicator.gov/blmMap/Map.jsp?MAP=SiteMapper

Federal lands: http://nationalatlas.gov/printable/fedlands.html

BLM Zip data: http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/BLM_Programs/geographical_sciences/gis/metadata.html

BLM public land stats PDF: http://www.blm.gov/public_land_statistics/pls11/pls2011.pdf

Public Lands: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Federalland.gif

[theenvironmentalbeat-blog]

More than Convinced: Trigger Trash is a big problem

[theenvironmentalbeat-blog]

RAW: Interview with Jamie Schwartz, USFS

April 10, 2013 Phone Interview

Jamie Schwartz, Washington Office USFS Shooting Liaison, 202-205-1589

Author of the MOU with Federal agencies and Shooting Sports Round Table (40 participants)

 and program manager for the Outdoor Ethics initiative through Leave No Trace (Boulder) and Tread Lightly! (Salt Lake City).

Brought money “to the table” for the MOU.

Through the Round Table they “established the need to address issues regarding shooting on public land” via “research” programs.

He brought the Responsive Management “document” to Tread Lightly! “to assist with the messaging” and they used the “document to develop a campaign: Respected Access is Open Access.”

Tread Lightly! holds the URL for the USFS.

“We have several issues and trash isn’t the only one giving us fits on public land.”

He noted that Responsive Management looked at “perceived issues.”

These issues cause management decisions such as closures and legal requirements.

Issues include “What we’re calling trigger trash” and “shooting of signs and appliances.”

Shooters aren’t necessarily the ones bringing the appliances in, but “once a bullet hole is in it, it’s their trash.”

Trash is a huge problem everywhere.

In the 60s Leave No Trace campaign addresses wilderness areas. Today they’re cleaner.

“I have been involved with Leave No Trace and Tread Lightly! for four years…bringing the education component into the recreational shooting community.”

PSA=education. Education=good results.

Benchmarks of effectiveness: Tread Lightly! had a specific shooting range in South Carolina that was updated—a pilot program—with before and after education surveys that had good results.

USFS: “has a multiple use mandate.” They “work with all entities” regarding “appropriate uses of USFS land.”

Regarding public access closures: “Most closures were in regard to some form of safety related issues.” (inadequate backstop, urban encroachment)

One area in Colorado they closed is Left Hand Canyon near Boulder.

“Left Hand Canyon closed because of trash.”

There was “a lot of residual debris” which was “near a stream” and seasonally with run-off moved “debris around.”

Regarding target range closures: “target ranges had a lot to do with the trash.”

“[W]e don’t have the staffing to clean-up”

Shooting on NFS land: “Since inception of Forest Service Reserves.”

“All is open [to shooting], unless it is restricted” to hunting season or firearm use.

“Some states don’t allow” shooting on public land. They refer to state regulations “for consistency.”

“Forest Service administered sites”: There are “lots of developed shooting ranges” on USFS land, with most in “Region 8—there’s 64.”

The “west is less” restricted “because more land is available.”

There are also “specific use ranges” where a club obtains a “special use permit.”  They used to be member only, but now most are “open to public.”

He pointed out that: “True partnership with the shooting community and education” enables them “to make a strong, responsible shooting community.’

[theenvironmentalbeat-blog]

RAW: Trigger Trash Target list

Trigger Trash Targets (seen and/on record):

Animals (buffalo)

Beer bottles

Beer cans

Cardboard boxes

Cars

Clay pigeons

Cleaning supply canisters

Computers

Cooler

Couches

Dolls

Doors and windows

Glass tables

Hot water tanks

Mannequins

Mattresses

Microwaves

No Shooting Signs

Other electronics

Plastic bottles

Plywood

Pop cans

Propane tanks

Refrigerators

School Bus

Signs in general

Spent ammunition

Stuffed animals

Televisions

Tires

Trees

Washers and dryers

[theenvironmentalbeat-blog]

RAW: Target info

a small round shield

2

a: a mark to shoot at

b: a target marked by shots fired at it

c: something or someone fired at or marked for attack

d: a goal to be achieved

3

a: an object of ridicule or criticism

b: something or someone to be affected by an action or development

4

a: the metallic surface (as of platinum or tungsten) upon which the stream of electrons within an X-ray tube is focused and from which the X-rays are emitted

b: a body, surface, or material bombarded with nuclear particles or electrons; especially: fluorescent material on which desired visual effects are produced in electronic devices (as in radar)

a. An object, such as a padded disk with a marked surface, that is shot at to test accuracy in rifle or archery practice.

b. Something aimed or fired at.

2. An object of criticism or attack.

3. One to be influenced or changed by an action or event.

4. A desired goal.

5. A railroad signal that indicates the position of a switch by its color, position, and shape.

6. The sliding sight on a surveyor's leveling rod.

7. A small round shield.

Targets The official NRA Action Pistol Shooting Targets are rectangular, with the top-end rounded. These targets were designed for use in the Bianchi Cup Tournament and through arrangement with John Bianchi, will be printed by NRA licensed manufacturers, in both cardboard and paper. They will carry the Bianchi Trademark and NRA Official Seal.

The second "official" target is an 8 inch diameter round "plate" made from .375 (3/8) inch thick steel. It is normally painted white. The plates may have individual bases and may sit on a stand in a series of six, or they may be fitted with hinges on metal frames as a more elaborate, permanent fixture. In order to score a hit, which is 10 points, the target must be knocked down.

The third "official" target is the speed plate, which is made from .375 (3/8) inch steel. It is painted white. In the speed event, 4 of the 5 targets must be knocked down to score, while the 5th (stop-plate) must be hit to stop the clock.

The fourth "official" target is the NRA B-18 Target used for the Combat Event. The top edge of the scoring area begins at the upper midpoint in the 6 ring and ends at the lower midpoint of the 6 ring at the bottom of the target. It is divided into 5 scoring zones, (hits outside the 6 ring are scored as misses). The 10 ring is formed by two vertical lined 5cm long, 10cm apart and joined at the top and bottom by semicircles with a 5cm radius. The 10 ring is therefore 10cm wide and 15cm high. The 9 through 6 rings are similarly shaped with their widths successively increased by 10cm (5cm on each side) and their heights by 15cm (7.5cm at the top and bottom). The center of the 10 ring must be 37.5cm from the top of the target. The 10 ring is not numbered. The B-24 target is used for firing at 50 feet.

A list of NRA Official Target Manufacturers is available at

http://competitions.nra.org.local/nra-licensed-target-manufacturers.aspx

http://www.clay-pigeon-shooting.worldsporting.tv/clay-pigeons-and-traps.htm

Standard Clay / Standard Clay Trap The Standard clay pigeon with a Diameter of 110mm and height of 25mm is the most common target used on a sporting clay pigeon shooting layout. This is also the only type of clay used for Skeet and Trap shooting disciplines. Available in many colours Black/Orange/Red/Green/White/Pink/Blue

  http://www.pistoleer.com/targets/highpower/

http://www.pistoleer.com/targets/

http://www.pistoleer.com/targets/zombies/

http://www.policeone.com/police-products/less-lethal/videos/5955184-tasers-new-training-targets

http://www.rangemasterrowdy.com/rangemaster-rowdy-steel-targets.htm

Audible Impact Feedback - Steel targets have a unique advantage over non-metal targets by providing an audible unmistakable feedback upon bullet impact. This is enhanced further by incorporating flappers and swingers in some of the targets for additional visual and audible feedback

The Self-Reset Popper targets are mounted on a triangular base using a heavy-duty hinge that allows the target to reset itself after being hit.

Hostage Torso Steel Target is made with 3/8" thick AR500 Steel. It is a 3/4 torso with a second head that swings from one side to other upon being hit.

Life Size Buck AR500 Steel Targets are very popular with the hunters. The standard full size buck features a white body with a round white flapper that provides a visual and audible feedback when struck.

http://www.coloradoclays.com/clays.php 

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/shooting.aspx

Among the Olympic events are pistol shooting at 50 m (164 ft), rifle shooting at 300 m (984 ft), trapshooting and skeet, and small-bore rifle shooting. NRA-sponsored tournaments are divided into sections for small-bore rifles, high-power rifles, pistols, and revolvers. In small-bore rifle shooting the targets range in distance from 50 ft to 200 yd (15.24–182.88 m), and in pistol and revolver shooting from 50 ft to 50 yd (15.24–45.72 m). For long-range rifle marksmanship, targets from 200 to 1,000 yd (182.88–914.4 m) are used. A shooting target is made of black-on-white cardboard and is composed of a bullseye (black) and several concentric circles.

http://www.about-shooting.com/Sight-In_Targets.php

Many hunters prefer to have their bullets impact high while sighting-in at 100 yards so the scope is actually zeroed at a range beyond 100 yards. For example, a varmint hunter may want to sight-in a rifle chambered for .22-250 Remington 1.7 inches high at 100 yards so it is zeroed at 250 yards. The targets available on this page are designed to help sight-in high at 100 yards. They include concentric impact circles that are 1/2 inch, 1 inch, 1+1/2 inches, and 2 inches in diameter. Select a target below with impact circles centered directly on the aiming point or select one with the center of the impact circles up to 3 inches above the aiming point depending on the trajectory of your ammunition.

You can select a target with either black or red aiming brackets. Both types are exactly alike except the color of the brackets

http://zombieindustries.com/shop/category/paper-zombie-targets/

[theenvironmentalbeat-blog]

Grand Junction--The Footprint of Trigger Trash

[theenvironmentalbeat-blog]

RAW: contact list

BLM:

Colorado River Valley Field Office – Greg Wolfgang, Recreation Staff Officer [phone]

Colorado River Valley Field Office – Brian Hopkins, Planning & Environmental Coordinator

Colorado River Valley Field Office – Steve Bennett, Field Office Manager

BLM, Grand Junction Office:

Northwest District Hazardous Materials Program Coordinator, Alan Kraus

BLM, State Office:

Colorado State Office – Tina Brown, Public Affairs Specialist (forwarded to Dave)

Northwest Colorado District – Dave Boyd, Public Affairs Specialist [phone]

Steven Hall, Communication Director, BLM Colorado (referred by James Doyle) [phone]

BLM, National Office:

Tom Gorey, Public Affairs Specialist [phone] [email protected]

Frank Jenks, BLM Outdoor Recreation Planner (national) 208-373-3993

Phil Walker, Public Affairs (national)

USDA Forest Service, White River National Forest:

Aspen – Sopris Ranger District, Carbondale – Martha Moran, Recreation Staff Officer [phone]

Referred to Boulder Ranger District, “Ed” [phone]

Referred to Holy Cross Ranger District, Don Dressler  [phone]

Referred to Meadow Lake, Kyle [phone]

USDA Forest Service, other:

Boulder Ranger District – Ed (referred to Tammy Williams)

? – Tammy Williams, Public Affairs Specialist for Recreation & Target Shooting [phone]

Else Kerby (sp?) Tammy’s assistant [phone] (message, no response)

Janelle Smith, Public Affairs Specialist, Denver office (referred by James Doyle) [phone]

USDA FOREST SERVICE REGION 2:

Special Agent in Charge, Laura Mark 707-562-8648 [email protected]

Regional Media Officer, Chris Strebig 303-275-5346

USDA Forest Service, National:

Jody (Spalding) Sutton, Branch Chief Content Analyst [phone] [email protected]

Region 8 EPA Office:

Randy Lamdin [phone] (referred to state: Walter Avramenko)

Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment:

Walter Avramenko, Unit Leader Hazardous Waste (title needs confirmed) [phone] (message, no response)

Warren Smith, Community Involvement Manager 303-692-3373 / cell # 303-912-1849

State of Colorado Parks & Wildlife:

Randy Hampton, Public Information Officer [phone]

Intermountain Region of National Parks Service

Rick Frost, assistant regional director in charge of public affairs [phone]

James Doyle (forwarded by Rick Frost) [email protected]

MT2 (lead reclaimation):

James Barthel, president & CEO [phone]

NRA

NRA Foundation Assistant Grants Manager, Andrew Dalton  800-554-9498 ext. 1131

NRA Foundation Grants Manager, Sandy Elkin 800-554-9498 ext. 1131

Friends of the NRA regional grant manager, Lynette Cerise 970-274-2427

Emailed: Basalt Town Council; follow-up w/Tina; follow-up w/MT2; Alan Kraus, BLM HW clean-up expert; Tom Gorey re states info request; James Doyle re gen. questions; EPA library.