Maud Road shooting range to close for expansion

BUTTE — The ear-popping sound of an AR-15 gunshot echoed off nearby hills Friday morning.

The Knik River Public Use Area rifle range did a brisk business among local firearm enthusiasts, with groups of people moving in and out of the area to sight in rifles, or simply get in some practice with their favorite firearms.

The AR-15 belonged to Paul Michelson, and it was his second trip to the range this week. He said he’s heard some complaints about the gun range from local residents concerned about the noise, and worried that a planned expansion for the range will bring more guns and noise to the surrounding neighborhoods.

“There’s always gonna be a lot of ‘Not in My Backyard,’” he said.

Michelson said he hopes at least some of the improvements will address sound abatement to make the range less disruptive to people living nearby.

The range will close April 1, and reopen July 1, according to Department of Natural Resources officials. During the range’s closure, officials will triple the rifle range’s width, and add an additional 75-foot wide pistol range in what is known as the Phase II expansion for the facility. Officials will also finish construction on the current public use area to adhere to the design requirements of a shooting range.

Phase III, slated for 2016, will include the addition of toilets and trash receptacles to the area. The overall estimated cost is $750,000, according to Alaska Office of Management and Budget figures.

Range users, like Michelson, said they were excited about the opportunity for pistol shooting because it means pistol users won’t have to wait for rifle users to walk the entire distance down-range to change targets.

Different ranges “make for a nice mix,” Michelson said. “It makes it a little more conducive for coming here, shooting a bunch, and getting out.”

The hope is that the range, which can draw 150 and 300 shooters per week during favorable weather, will prove an irresistible lure to an area long beset by hazardous and environmentally damaging “wildcat” or unregulated shooting ranges, said Clark Cox, a DNR Natural Resources Manager.

“It makes the enforcement easier,” he said. “It should also help the public realize that if they’re not at the range, they shouldn’t be shooting.”

However, licensed hunters may be allowed to use state lands outside the range for hunting in-season, Cox said.

The roughly five-acre range was set aside for use as part of the public use area’s 2008 management plan. And over the years the Legislature has allotted funds to add amenities.

Not everyone supports the expansion.

Eagle River resident Brad Meiklejohn says he’s faced intimidation and harassment by other users in the public use area, and been threatened at gunpoint.

He said the gun range needs more oversight, rather than expansion.

He mentioned to areas that experience frequent illegal shooting: Reflections Lake and Cottonwood Creek in the Palmer Hay Flats State Game Refuge. Meiklejohn praised the Department of Fish and Game Lands and Refuges Program Coordinator Joe Meehan (among others) for efforts to preserve the lands.

Meiklejohn said the range was created to reduce this sort of illegal shooting, but it doesn’t seem to have had the desired impact.

There are numerous shooting ranges available in the Valley, Mieklejohn said in a Spectrum piece published March 27 in the Fronitersman.

Meehan said he and other Fish and Game employees have long struggled against lead pollution brought on by irresponsible shooting practices, including at the Goose Bay Wildlife Refuge.

However, the issue isn’t just the damage caused to these areas by the shooting, but also that lead becomes concentrated in these places, as opposed to widely scattered throughout the refuge, and cleaning up the contamination is costly to taxpayers, Meehan said.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.