Target shooting damage in Ash and Hunter Canyon

We all know that shooting guns in our national forests is legal. But what isn't legal is shooting at live trees and trashing the forest, leaving dead animal carcasses behind, and shooting across roads, near buildings and over water. There are signs reminding shooters of this in both Hunter and Ash Canyon.

I've noticed an increase in the damage target shooters leave behind since our Monument Fire from 2011. This fire, which began on June 10th, burned a total of 30,526 acres, of which 15,675 is on US Forest Service (USFS) land. Everywhere I go now in either Hunter or Ash Canyons in the eastern Huachucas I see and hear target shooters. It's not that they are shooting in the forest that bothers me, it's that a high amount of them are leaving their casings, trash and shot-up household appliances behind. And the target shooters are moving deeper and higher into the canyons.

I went back to the canyons to photograph some damage this morning. The light was better today than yesterday afternoon, but new storm clouds were moving in. I at first started at Hunter Canyon since that is one place that was crowded out yesterday. No one was there at 8:15am when I drove in, except for a cold and lonesome USBP agent parked at the entrance of Hunter Canyon Road.

I finally took a critical look at the damage caused by bullets in trees. There's hardly a tree around the old campsite that isn't damaged by bullet holes, from the stately oaks to the majestic sycamores. Trees die slowly this way, first from wounds to the outer bark, and eventually from the xylem getting cut and no longer being able to bring water from the roots to the upper trees.

On many trees the damage isn't noticable until you come up close and see shredded bark or lead caught in trees. A tree can survive a hole from one bullet, but when many bullets repeatly strike the bark, eventually the trunk weakens and falls over, which is what has happened in many of the shooting areas: trees that were healthy when we first moved here in late 2004 are now dead and lying on the forest floor. This includes emory oaks, junipers, sycamores, manzanitas and various smaller shrubs. I drove to the edge of West Hunter Canyon road and the damage was visible everywhere: spent casings, trash and bullet-worn trees line the landscape.

I pulled into one spur road off the main target shooting area where a badly-damaged mature sycamore is. All dogs were out of the truck at this point, sniffing around. They started barking ferociously while I was photographing the sycamore. When I looked over their way I saw Minnie fighting with Zeke. That part isn't new; they always fight, but at closer look I discovered they were fighting over parts of two deer carcasses that were cut up and spread under a grove of oak trees. Both had been skinned and entrailed. The meat left on the bones was still very red. The scene was reminiscent of a slaughter house.

According to (A.R.S. 17-309 A 9), All hunters are responsible for cleaning up after themselves. All camp areas should be left clean. Shell casings and associated debris constitute litter and should be picked up and packed out.
All hunters are responsible for the proper care and disposal of their wildlife carcasses. Ash Canyon is located in Game Management Unit 5 but I don't know how long the white-tail deer hunting season is. Finding that in the AZ Game and Fish Guide for 2012-2013 is impossible!

I wasn't expecting to see dead deer on this hike. The dogs were now energized and chowing down on the remains. Five otherwise peaceful dogs had turned into wolves. I had a hard time getting them back into the truck. I drove them home so that they wouldn't be any further nuisance to me and returned to Ash Canyon to check out more damage. This way I could photograph in peace without them finding more dead things to get excited about.

There was no one in Ash Canyon yet, either, except for, once again, two US Border Patrol (USBP) vans on an overlook. It was starting to feel chilly now at 10am, with more clouds moving in. The more critically I looked at trees the more I realized that most trees near the flat areas have fallen victim to bullet holes. The computer was gone from yesterday, but the shot-up pallettes were still there, as were several target sheets posted on live and dead trees. Shot up clay pigeons, broken records, busted glass bottles, beer cans and plastics all made up the trash around here.

By 11am people started coming into the forests, both families out playing in the remaining snow and shooters in their full-sized pick-ups.

I revisited the same areas I was at yesterday. But this time I stopped at Lutz creek, a drainage area that was badly damaged in the fire/monsoon. I had seen shooters here before and was curious.

I was pleasantly shocked here. Just a few steps from the road and there are spent casings. More target sheets are posted on live trees. Several shot-up pumpkins and a watermelon were scattered on the floor. Arizonans are not too kind to pumpkins! The area smelled of fire retardant.

Looking at this creek bed angered me. This creekbed still has plenty of live trees that survived the fire of 2011, but now target shooters are killing them off slowly with their bullets. Native birds have lost a large part of their habitat and now have to cramp into this small narrow live tract for survival. I had had enough and drove to the Sierra Vista Ranger Station off SR92.

The Sierra Vista Ranger station is a new building that opened up last November. The foundation was already laid when the Monument fire blew through, but luckily the fire was diverted and stopped right at the edge of the foundation. Although expensive to taxpayers (and who isn't a taxpayer?), the USFS needed this space, but it comes at a cost: the new structure is leased for over $500,000 a year compared to the much smaller building at $88,000 a year that is across the road.

Inside this new building are brochures and maps of the Coronado National Forest, information on invasive species, photographs of local wildlife, and brochures on various topics such as wildfire safety, poison ivy and black bear sightings. There are brochures for OTV regulations but nothing handy on target shooting.

After my initial introduction I was welcomed to speak with District Ranger Mark Ruggiero ("Call me Mark!"), who welcomed me into his office to chat about the growing numbers of careless target shooters in our national forest. His small office is decorated with signs and caps from his various federal service jobs (mostly dealing with fire fighting) in national parks and BLM. His previous job was as ranger in the Atlanta area. He took over as District Ranger for the Sierra Vista Station just last August. On his guest table sit six stacked orange clay pigeons with six .22 rounds facing upward on the top pigeon, trash his team have found in Hunter Canyon. He is a large man with thick, receding grey hair. He was willing to take time and talk with me, which I greatly appreciated.

How does one diplomatically broach the topic of target shooter damage in a national forest? Mentioning this topic to gun owners often puts them on the defense; they don't want their right to bear arms and shoot them taken away from them. That is not what I want, either.

According to Ranger Mark the big complaints from nearby residents is not so much the resource damage, but the noise. Homeowners in the Wild Horse development downhill from Ash Canyon say they hear loud shots fired during daylight hours every day. These aren't just the usual .22 shells, but shotguns and rockets. They want the USFS to close the canyons to the target shooters permanently. The problem is that gun owners are legally allowed to shoot in the national forests. What they can't do is trash up the forest and kill live trees in the process. "Catching them in the act is difficult" said Ranger Mark. Indeed, it is. "As soon as we shut down the forest to target shooters we'll get sued by the NRA," he added. Arizona is a gun-loving state, and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was also targeted with lawsuits last fall in Arizona if they had voted against target shooting as well.

Closing the forest off to target shooters is punishing the majority of shooters who are responsible. The only time the USFS will close a forest to shooters is when there is an extreme fire danger, like last summer before the monsoon. "Ninety-five percent of the shooters are responsible, but it's difficult to migitate with the five percent of idiots" he concluded.

So why not close off certain areas temporarily to allow for natural healing? There is no protected flora in the eastern Huachucas. The only fauna that is protected in the eastern slopes of the Huachucas is the spotted owl, and that bird lives in Ramsey, Miller and Carr Canyons, not Ash or Hunter. Closing off an area for protection is therefore not feasible. Closing off one damaged area while other damaged areas remain open is also not doable. There is still damage done by illegal border crossers, who wouldn't pay heed to any closed-off areas anyway. They often carry drugs now with them.

Has the 2011 Monument Fire been a loss to tourism here, then? No, said Ranger Mark. Neither the fire nor the target shooters have diminished tourist dollars. Towns like Tombstone and Bisbee, both major tourist attractions, have not been affected by the fire. It is the drug runners coming up from Mexico, more than any other reason, for the drop in tourist dollars in the Huachuca mountains area.

Target shooting is not just a problem in the eastern Huachucas. The greater Tucson area is also getting hit hard by damage done by target shooters. The Redington pass area northeast of Tucson is so badly trashed, according to Ranger Mark, that a hazmat team had to go in and remove all the lead in the area. Closing that area to target shooters only invites them to shoot in other sensitive areas like the Rincons and Santa Ritas.

It is obvious that Ranger Mark is beset by all sides concerning target shooting and damage done by them here in the Huachucas. He and I both support guns, thanks in part to borderland violence, but we both agree it's the wanton destruction of live plants and other resources that is disturbing. The increase amount of shooters is also a potential safety factor to hikers and other recreationists. Residents in the Baumkartchner area have complained of shots fired toward their homes.

The issue has been brought to the Arizona Governor Brewer. Both Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake as well as Cochise County District 1 Supervisor Pat Call are aware of the issue. Yet the main focus is not so much the damage done by target shooters, but rather the noise by the target shooters heard in the Wild Horse housing development. Many of the homes in Wild Horse are upscale homes on 3.6-acres lots. Constant noise would devalue housing prices and that has home owners concerned.

The Coronado National Forest, like all national forests, is a multiple-use forest. The website does not mention target shooting under its recreational opportunities, but it's clearly a popular activity. Hikers, hunters, equestrians, OTV riders, mountain bikers and target shooters all have the right to be in the national forest. The USFS can not restrict one group while favoring another.

So what is the best solution for everyone? Residents of Wild Horse are wanting to form a "Friends of Hunter Canyon" volunteer program with the USFS. This group will help pick up trash and educate locals on proper target shooting etiquette. This group would be open to residents outside the Wild Horse development. Future meetings with the public will be published so that anyone interested is welcome to attend.

Sources:

http://www.azgfd.gov/h_f/hunting_rules.shtml
http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2324/
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/14/gun-groups-decry-unacceptable-proposal-to-ban-target-shooting-on-western/
http://www.fs.usda.gov/recmain/coronado/recreation
http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/coronado/news-events/?cid=STELPRDB5388750
http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/story/19603294/target-shooting-okd-on-blm-land-in-southern-ariz