Brian Mahoney | UI Operations Supervisor – Campus Recreation
Hunting season is right around the corner and rifle hunters will swarm to the woods in search of areas to sight in their favorite gun. They will search high and low for the perfect place to bag that trophy animal. Unfortunately, areas open to shoot and hunt are becoming harder and harder to find and many have been shut down due to irresponsible patrons trashing our great outdoors, leaving the rest of us to pay the consequences.
I’ve lived in the Moscow area for over 35 years and have seen many changes. Areas I once regularly accessed are now gated or posted, limiting or eliminating my recreational opportunities.
Growing up on Moscow Mountain was a blessing. I had an outdoor archery range, a place to shoot guns, old growth forest, endless trails and every type of wildlife imaginable within a few miles of my home. I haven’t lived on Moscow Mountain since 1989, and much has changed since then.
Many of the areas I used to shoot and hunt have been, or are in jeopardy of being closed due to one thing — disrespect. Two years ago I was shooting at one of my favorite spots on the mountain and noticed five or six young adults, males & females, enjoying an afternoon of shooting clay pigeons with their shotguns. They shot for a couple hours and left before I was done for the day. After they departed, I walked over to the location where they were shooting and was dumbfounded.
Not only were there three empty clay pigeon boxes with the cardboard dividers strewn about, but hundreds of shotgun hulls and empty shotgun shell boxes lay all over the ground. A few beer cans and bottles were also present, amplifying my disappointment in their behavior.
Who would do such a thing? Do they care about the environment? Who do they expect to clean up after them? Do they realize this shooting area might be in jeopardy due to their actions? I’m unsure of the answers, but one thing is certain, people who don’t clean up after themselves are doing no favors for the rest of us who do. I cleaned up all of their trash and a few other items that I found nearby.
I left the area feeling upset and concerned. If they returned and did the same thing without someone like me to clean, would the landowner close the area?
I have returned to the same spot many times and have visited several other spots in Latah County to find the same disrespectful behavior. Anytime I go shooting at the spot mentioned previously, I always take a garbage can with me. I usually fill it to the brim with shotgun hulls, rifle cases, cans, broken bottles, shattered remnants of milk jugs and various odd items that I wouldn’t have imagined people shooting.
Items such as CD’s, light bulbs and the occasional piece of office equipment, to name a few. Just last month, I was astonished to find self-adhesive target dots stuck all over a metal gate meant to keep automobiles out of that area.
They were all shot up by various guns, damaging the gate and leaving a scar for the owner to eventually find.
There is hope, though. One thing I have noticed is that a clean area usually stays that way for much longer than an area with some trash on the ground. It’s obvious that once a little trash is left, others will follow suit, thinking it must be okay since someone else did it before them. This mentality is likely the same one that got the Illia Dunes shut down over Labor Day weekend. So you might be asking yourself, “What can I do?”
My suggestion is to not only clean up all of your own garbage, but also clean up after others, leaving the place better than you found it. Never, under any circumstance, target shoot anything that isn’t biodegradable or that can’t be picked up easily and removed — any type of glass products, for example.
If you are fortunate enough to find a nice area that is safe and legal to shoot, join me and leave it better than you found it. I hope this article and the recent mess at the Illia Dunes may serve as a reminder of how we can respectfully enjoy the outdoors or we can get locked out of the experience entirely. Let’s work together to keep the wilderness gates open and enjoy the sport of shooting for years to come.