Wash. Wildlife Officers Aim at Target Shooters

June 11, 2013
Target shooters, who've sparked wildfires recently, will only be allowed to fire between sunrise and 11 a.m.

June 11--Responding to a recent spate of wildfires started by target shooters on state lands, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is restricting target shooting on the Wenas Wildlife Area to the hours between sunrise and 11 a.m. from now through September.

The wildlife department instituted a similar temporary rule last year, and wildlife area manager Cindi Confer Morris called the current action "kind of our stopgap so we can keep the fires contained until we come up with a more comprehensive plan."

Morris and other state wildlife officials have been meeting with a citizens advisory group since last year to work toward such a permanent plan, which might include restricting target shooting to specific areas.

"There's four or five places where the public likes to pull off and shoot," Morris said. "None of those were developed by (the wildlife department). They're just sort of user-defined."

In the past two weeks, target shooters have ignited a 25-acre fire along Buffalo Road near Selah and two smaller fires, one five acres and one less than an acre, on the north end of the Wenas Wildlife Area near Durr and Umtanum roads. Another fire last Saturday in Kittitas County's Schnebly Canyon may also have been ignited by target shooting.

One of the recent fires began near a metal target set up by Durr Road shooters. Only paper targets are approved on the Wenas area, though state law doesn't expressly forbid metal targets -- as it does such things as computers, televisions and other household appliances being used as targets.

Still, the potential for sparks caused by bullets hitting a metal target is real enough that state officials have removed it more than once. "And then," Morris said, "a new one shows up."

The issue of human-caused wildfire is a problem for public land managers, especially when recreationists believe a rainy stretch has erased the fire danger. A month ago, bottle rockets shot off from Umtanum Road -- still called Ellensburg Pass Road by many locals -- ignited a wildfire that scorched more than 15 acres.

"Folks are getting out and they're just not thinking," said Matt Eberline, fire district manager for the Department of Natural Resources. "They're not paying attention to their campfires, they're shooting in bad locations, they're driving their vehicles in the dry grass.

"We had that wet spell and everything's still got that greenish tint and so people think the fire danger is gone. But that's just not the case."

Last year, the wildlife area restricted shooting hours after shooters at the Cottonwood Creek area ignited a seven-acre fire. In 2011, Sheep Company range shooting started a 470-acre blaze.

Another issue that has become a major problem at wildlife areas, Morris said, is the use of exploding targets. Although they've been outlawed on state lands for more than a year, some target shooters still haven't gotten the word -- or don't care to believe it.

The website of one exploding-target manufacturer "says it doesn't start fires, but it does," said Jody Taylor, Wenas Wildlife Area assistant manager. State fire officials put the targets to the test two years ago, he added, and sparks from the exploding targets ignited fires.

Morris said recreationists who start wildfires -- whether by target shooting or building a campfire that escapes the fire pit -- are liable for the cost of not only putting out the fire, but rehabilitating the burned area. She said a 2008 fire that burned 123 acres in the Roza Creek drainage cost a recreationist's homeowners insurance "several hundred thousand dollars."

Copyright 2013 - Yakima Herald-Republic, Wash.

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