Ordinance underscores need for new target-practice range

DAWN DE BUSK

Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - Dave Hopper, who lives off Fairview Loop, doesn't want to push the gun enthusiasts aside.

Although the member of Alaskans for Palmer Hay Flats said he's relieved that the Cottonwood Creek access to the hay flats has been shut down to target shooting, he would like to see an outdoor shooting range for the Valley community.

So does Joe Meehan, Alaska Fish and Game program coordinator for lands and refuges. Kris Abshire, who founded Alaskans for Palmer Hay Flats, favors the idea, too.

"We need to work with the borough or the state to establish an outdoor shooting range. We need a place for people who practice target shooting to go," Abshire said.

This isn't the first time Ron Swanson, the Mat-Su Borough's community development director, has heard this request.

"Ever since, I've been with the borough, people have been saying it would be nice to have an outdoor rifle range," he said.

Swanson said an appropriate place on the map would be in the southern part of the Valley, like off the Glenn Highway. But he couldn't pinpoint a specific piece of land, because right now, there isn't one.

"We've looked at places on borough land and nothing fits. In some cases, it's a safety issue, too near someone's back yard," he said. "Everyone wants it within a 10-minute drive, but nobody wants to hear guns going off near their home."

The nonprofit group proposes creating an outdoor shooting range, but finding a likely location proves to be an obstacle.

Hopper envisions an abandoned gravel pit far away from residential areas as the perfect type of location for a shooting range. He thinks it would be practical to have the range near a major road, so the activity occurring there could be seen from the road.

"That way the troopers could police it by just driving by," he said.

Hopper said his organization would round up the wood necessary for building benches and posts for targets.

"I don't know where we're going to find the piece of land to do this. It could be some piece of vacant land that's not developable, where someone could use a bulldozer to move some dirt and make the shooting range," Hopper said.

Fish and Game runs three outdoor ranges - near Rabbit Creek in Anchorage, in Fairbanks and in Juneau. Although Meehan would like to offer the same advantage to Valley residents, he says Fish and Game's budget puts severe restrictions on building and maintaining such a facility.

"It would be nice if the borough or a private land owner stepped up, or a sportsman's club provided that service," he said, adding that gun safety education programs could go hand in hand with a community gun range.

A Palmer resident doubts an outdoor shooting range would solve the trash-dumping and random target shooting that happens.

"The indiscriminate shooters aren't the kind of people who would use an outdoor range. They aren't even using the indoor ranges we have," said Dick Coutts of Palmer. The solution lies with better enforcement of regulations, Coutts said.

The borough helped the Upper Susitna Shooters Association obtain a grant, which it is using to build an outdoor rifle range on borough lands in Montana Creek, according to Swanson.

That's a long way to drive for some Valley residents, especially given the current price of gas, Hopper said.

Dawn De Busk may

be reached at 352-2252

or at dawn.debusk@

frontiersman.com.