Post by Twowithone on Sept 26, 2010 12:42:32 GMT -4
Commission may charge for range use
By Bob Frye, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Game Commission ranges
The Game Commission has 29 shooting ranges across the state, 10 of them in the southwest region. No other region has more than eight.
Five of those locally have facilities for rifles only; the other five have facilities for both rifles and handguns. The regional ranges are located on:
» Game land 203, Allegheny County
» Game land 108, Cambria County
» Game land 51, Fayette County
» Game land 179 and game land 223, Greene County
» Game land 248, Indiana County
» Game land 50, Somerset County
» Game land 245, Washington County
» Game land 42, Westmoreland County (two ranges)
If solitude is your thing, the shooting range on state game lands 203 near Wexford is not the place to go.
Day after day, week after week, year after year, it draws shooters from all over the Greater Pittsburgh area. They show up with hunting guns, military-looking, AR-style rifles and handguns of all makes and models.
"I know some people in the eastern part of the state might disagree, but it's arguably the busiest shooting range in the state because it's so close to an urban area," said Gary Fujak, a wildlife conservation officer with the Pennsylvania Game Commission in Allegheny County.
Located as it is on a state game land, the range was originally built with hunters in mind. But anyone can use it free of charge, and that draws to lots of people.
Some calculations done at the range in 1996 and again in 2002 found that, in both years, about 50 percent of the shooters using the range were non-hunters, said Barry Zaffuto, land management supervisor in the Game Commission's southwest region office.
No one can say whether that's typical of all of the commission's ranges, said commission spokesman Jerry Feaser.
"We have no real data at this point. We have no sign-ins, no records, way of monitoring things," Feaser said.
But the suspicion is that there are plenty of non-hunting shooters using the ranges, and that's got the commission looking to make a change.
When Game Commissioners gather in Wilkes-Barre next week for their fall meeting, they will consider a proposal that would require anyone using a game land shooting range to first buy a hunting license or a $30 annual shooting range permit.
"The commission is proposing to regulate unlicensed recreational shooters to accomplish the twin goals of having those unlicensed persons contribute toward the cost of the program, and to better quantify and control use of game lands and game lands ranges," reads the board's agenda.
No such requirements have ever been in place before, but some new factors have come into play, Feaser said
First, the cost of maintaining the ranges has been significant lately. Over the last five years or so the commission has spent several million dollars to upgrade safety barriers, improve range design and remove decades of lead in the form of fired bullets.
Second, the agency has also been spending more time and money as time goes on patrolling the ranges, as they have increasingly been used for "illicit activities" that range from vandalism on up to more serious crimes. Some federally-owned public ranges have even been used by alleged terrorists as training grounds.
The commission had to permanently close the range on game lands 285 in Beaver County within the last few years, in fact, because of criminal abuse.
"At one time, when I started with the agency, we never wrote any citations for the ranges. Now, it's common," Zaffuto said. "We've had to start patrolling them on a regular basis.
"It's increased our workload, both on the law-enforcement and land-management ends."
Feaser said the permits would likely be sold through the same point of sale system used to sell hunting licenses.
If commissioners approve the proposal — Bob Schlemmer of Export, a member of the commission board, could not be reached for comment on that likelihood — it will be preliminary. A second and final vote would have to follow in January, meaning no changes could go into effect before next year.
But after having been batted around for a while, it's an idea under consideration, Feaser said.
"I just think some people are starting to think that we need to get a handle on this," Zaffuto said
By Bob Frye, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Game Commission ranges
The Game Commission has 29 shooting ranges across the state, 10 of them in the southwest region. No other region has more than eight.
Five of those locally have facilities for rifles only; the other five have facilities for both rifles and handguns. The regional ranges are located on:
» Game land 203, Allegheny County
» Game land 108, Cambria County
» Game land 51, Fayette County
» Game land 179 and game land 223, Greene County
» Game land 248, Indiana County
» Game land 50, Somerset County
» Game land 245, Washington County
» Game land 42, Westmoreland County (two ranges)
If solitude is your thing, the shooting range on state game lands 203 near Wexford is not the place to go.
Day after day, week after week, year after year, it draws shooters from all over the Greater Pittsburgh area. They show up with hunting guns, military-looking, AR-style rifles and handguns of all makes and models.
"I know some people in the eastern part of the state might disagree, but it's arguably the busiest shooting range in the state because it's so close to an urban area," said Gary Fujak, a wildlife conservation officer with the Pennsylvania Game Commission in Allegheny County.
Located as it is on a state game land, the range was originally built with hunters in mind. But anyone can use it free of charge, and that draws to lots of people.
Some calculations done at the range in 1996 and again in 2002 found that, in both years, about 50 percent of the shooters using the range were non-hunters, said Barry Zaffuto, land management supervisor in the Game Commission's southwest region office.
No one can say whether that's typical of all of the commission's ranges, said commission spokesman Jerry Feaser.
"We have no real data at this point. We have no sign-ins, no records, way of monitoring things," Feaser said.
But the suspicion is that there are plenty of non-hunting shooters using the ranges, and that's got the commission looking to make a change.
When Game Commissioners gather in Wilkes-Barre next week for their fall meeting, they will consider a proposal that would require anyone using a game land shooting range to first buy a hunting license or a $30 annual shooting range permit.
"The commission is proposing to regulate unlicensed recreational shooters to accomplish the twin goals of having those unlicensed persons contribute toward the cost of the program, and to better quantify and control use of game lands and game lands ranges," reads the board's agenda.
No such requirements have ever been in place before, but some new factors have come into play, Feaser said
First, the cost of maintaining the ranges has been significant lately. Over the last five years or so the commission has spent several million dollars to upgrade safety barriers, improve range design and remove decades of lead in the form of fired bullets.
Second, the agency has also been spending more time and money as time goes on patrolling the ranges, as they have increasingly been used for "illicit activities" that range from vandalism on up to more serious crimes. Some federally-owned public ranges have even been used by alleged terrorists as training grounds.
The commission had to permanently close the range on game lands 285 in Beaver County within the last few years, in fact, because of criminal abuse.
"At one time, when I started with the agency, we never wrote any citations for the ranges. Now, it's common," Zaffuto said. "We've had to start patrolling them on a regular basis.
"It's increased our workload, both on the law-enforcement and land-management ends."
Feaser said the permits would likely be sold through the same point of sale system used to sell hunting licenses.
If commissioners approve the proposal — Bob Schlemmer of Export, a member of the commission board, could not be reached for comment on that likelihood — it will be preliminary. A second and final vote would have to follow in January, meaning no changes could go into effect before next year.
But after having been batted around for a while, it's an idea under consideration, Feaser said.
"I just think some people are starting to think that we need to get a handle on this," Zaffuto said