Archers, shooters face fee hikes ( Closing public lands to the Public )

Rocky Mountain News ^ | September 15, 2006 | Dick Foster

[george76]

A small band of archers has been shooting bows and arrows for 37 years on a range in the Pike National Forest north of Deckers, paying the U.S. Forest Service about $450 a year for a permit.

This year it will all end because the Forest Service presented the Columbine Bowmen with a bill for $23,000 for the one-year permit, said club president Tom Younger.

The same fate faces the 180 or so members of the Buffalo Creek Gun Club, who shoot targets in the Pike forest near Bailey. The club's annual permit fee of $150 over the past 40 years suddenly soared to $20,000.

"It's their goal to do that, to run us off the land," Younger said of the Forest Service. "I'm letting it go. I can't fight it anymore."

Forest Service regional lease officer Diane Hitchings said she knows of "only three or four private clubs" that have been allowed to use national forest land in the five-state region that includes Colorado.

Such "special uses" date back decades to a more relaxed view of the forest. Now, private use of the public's land is discouraged.

"We look at it far more stringently than we used to," said Pike National Forest District Ranger Randy Hickenbottom.

"After the Hayman Fire, they put a gate up and told us to privatize our club and make it for members only," said Younger.

The Forest Service wanted the land closed to better protect it from fire and damage by unsupervised public use, he said.

"Then this year, they changed the policy and wanted us to open it up," Younger said.

He said that now, "anybody can walk in and shoot our range," but the Forest Service is still raising its fee.

[george76]

Now the USFS will get no money for their budgets.

" Nothing is better than something ? "

.

[george76]

"It's their goal to do that, to run us off the land," Younger said of the Forest Service.

"I'm letting it go. I can't fight it anymore."

[george76]

" Forest Service regional lease officer Diane Hitchings said she knows of "only three or four private clubs" that have been allowed to use national forest land in the five-state region that includes Colorado. "

[white trash redneck]

I used to shoot at the Buffalo Creek Gun Club when I lived in the Denver area. It has a 600 yard range, offering highpower rifle clinics that introduced many (including myself) to highpower rifle shooting, and serving as home club to many nationally ranked shooters, and yet only 45 minutes from a population of 2.5 million people.

It is a pity that anti-gun bureaucrats at the USFS are going to close down this unique resource.

[RightWhale]

Who or what is the public and who or what owns the public lands?

[caver]

So now it looks like the Forest Service will get nothing. They used to get $150, now they want $20,000. How can the Forest Service just decide to charge a group an arbitrary amount? The Forest Service run rampant over some areas. Nothing worse than bueraucrats in charge.

[Disturbin]

Doesn't a 13,000% increase in fees sound reasonable?

[sarc]

[Laz711]

Their reason is to minimize the fire danger by keeping people off of the lands. However, with the higher rainfall we have been getting (in NM at least), this means that more brush will be growing in the forest. Then, in a few years (or next year), when it drys out again, an errant lightning strike will start the fires again. Who will the service blame then if no single human uses the land, and the only ones onto it are the forest service themselves? Will they blame themselves for mis-management of the forest, for not clearing the under brush, for putting out small fires, allowing the forest to overgrow until it is a tinder box ready to explode? No, they will just knee jerk and blame some non-existiant person throwing a cig, or not putting out their campfire, even though no one is allowed on the land.

[sgtbono2002]

Its not the laws you have to fear its the Regulations.

laws are passed by Legislators. You can vote them out

Regulations are put out by bureaucratic assholes who are answerable to no one. You can fight a law but a regulation is just about impossible.

[ASOC]

Many years ago they pulled this stunt with Land Mobile Radio site users (tower owners). Only with the commercial operators, the government demanded a % of profits.

A tax is a tax is a tax.

[girlangler]

More and more the public is being kicked out of public lands. It's a travesty.

Time to contact your congressman. Don't give up the fight george76, we need you.

[Uri’el-2012]

The Forest Service wanted the land closed to better protect it from fire and damage by unsupervised public use, he said.

The Hayman fire was started by a Federal Forest Service employee !!!!

[TexasRepublic]

This is all about strangling the gun culture. The anti's figure if the gun ranges are closed, the gun culture will go away. I'd say they are wrong.

[theBuckwheat]

I wonder how many environmental organizations (NGOs) and extended governmental units such as state universities have areas under their private, exclusive, control on public land.

[RightWhale]

This is all about the meaning of the word public. What does it mean? Evidently what we were told in school is incomplete or not at all correct.

[george76]

I smell a rat...Sierra Club .

[george76]

This used to be the "Land of Many Uses."

Now it is the land of no use.

[caver]

Good point about the fire danger. It sounds like they used the fire danger as a reason to kick the shooters out. They probably took better care of the land than the uninformed public.

[caver]

"Doesn't a 13,000% increase in fees sound reasonable?"


Only if you are the feds!

[george76]

If it is politically correct as determined by some unelected bureaucrat...free ?

In Steamboat Springs area, and other areas, the hate-America druggies trashed that forest...never got permits.

Here, a legal historical practice is shut down.