USFS Will Open Dialogue on Rec Shooting
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
A US Forest Service (USFS) public affairs specialist in Washington state has indicated to Gun Week that the time is “long overdue” for the agency to open a dialogue with the shooting community to solve problems between recreational shooters and other users, and the USFS.
That remark came as Gun Week solved a year-long mystery about the origin of an alleged court “ruling” that declared a forest road to be an “occupied area” under the definition of a national forest regulation. Gun Week tracked down the officer involved in that case and learned the truth about this ruling that has been, in the officer’s opinion, distorted with each repetition.
Veteran USFS Public Affairs Officer Alan Gibbs told Gun Week, “I think the time is long past ripe for more conversation to occur.”
Gibbs spoke with Gun Week after the newspaper began investigating an incident north of Mount Rainier National Park in mid-July in which two recreational shooters were escorted out of an isolated spot in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, and ordered not to return. James Colomarino and Bob Kennar said they were shooting shotguns on July 16 when they were interrupted by two USFS staffers who ordered them to stop, stood by while they retrieved empty shells, and then walked them back to a nearby road, repeatedly telling the shooters that they could be cited and arrested—and would be if they came back—for shooting in the area.
Where they were shooting was an old logging landing several hundred yards up an overgrown, abandoned logging road, from where they had parked alongside an existing USFS maintained road. Kennar said he has been shooting in this location for many years and this was the first time he had ever been bothered.
Gibbs, and Melissa Simpson, an attorney for the Department of Agriculture in Washington, DC, investigated the incident and told Gun Week that the concern over shooting was due to the proximity of a scenic outlook along a hiking trail. Neither could say exactly how near that trail was to the shooting site.
It was just the latest chapter in a long-running series of events that have convinced many activists that the USFS has declared war on recreational shooters.
However, it appears that impression may be wrong. Two months ago, USFS Chief Dale Bosworth sent a memorandum to all national forest districts stressing that, “Shooting sports are long standing and appropriate uses of National Forest System (NFS) lands.” Gun Week obtained a copy of that memo.
“Shooting sports bring together the hunting, target shooting and general recreational shooting interests that have enjoyed these activities for many years,” Bosworth wrote. “With ever increasing population, use, and urban interface development affecting NFS lands we must, now more than ever, work with our partners to facilitate safe and responsible use.”
Bosworth outlined several efforts now in motion in Washington, DC, to accommodate recreational shooting and encourage local USFS offices to work with shooters.
Some critical issues were revealed during Gun Week’s investigation of this latest incident. Gibbs acknowledged that it is still the belief among USFS law enforcement officers and other staffers that a forest road is an “occupied area” as defined under a forest regulation first discussed more than a year ago as part of an earlier Gun Week investigation into shooting on national forest lands.
He confirmed that law enforcement bases its position on an unwritten, verbal “ruling” by an unidentified federal magistrate that a road is an occupied area. Yet last year, Mark Rey, Undersecretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment—essentially the man who oversees national forest operations—told Gun Week in an interview that this ruling is “an urban legend.”
And as this issue was going to press, Gun Week learned the truth about that “ruling” from the enforcement officer who had brought a case before a federal magistrate in Seattle more than 10 years ago.
USFS Officer Shane Wyrsch told Gun Week that the magistrate, whose name he could not recall, never issued a “ruling” that declared a road to be an occupied area. The magistrate, as Wyrsch recalled, was deciding a citation that Wyrsch, then new on the job, had written to a man who had been shooting, apparently right along a national forest road. During the course of his discussion, the magistrate apparently suggested that if there were people on a road, it might be considered an “occupied area.”
“But that’s all it was,” Wyrsch stressed to Gun Week in frustration, “just his opinion. Who’s to say that another magistrate on the same day on another case might not have said something else?”
Wyrsch agreed that this chance remark has “grown legs” and taken on a life of its own “in the retelling.” He concurred that it was not a formal ruling that has the same effect as law, and he promised that when he returned from an assignment in another state, he would “once again” try to explain this to USFS staff in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest either in a meeting or via e-mail, and try to put the misunderstanding to rest.
Gibbs noted that magistrate rulings are never recorded and printed as they would be if issued by a judge. However, neither Gibbs nor Simpson could argue that this might not be acceptable as a court precedent, and Wyrsch’s explanation about the origin of this story tends to solidify that.
After interviewing Colomarino, who said he had called ranger stations in Enumclaw and North Bend, WA, to ask about recreational shooting opportunities, Gun Week anonymously contacted both offices also. A receptionist at Enumclaw said most of the White River region—where Colomarino and Kennar had been shooting—was open, with the exception of the area along USFS Road 70. Pressed for information about that closure, the receptionist responded, “It’s because we had too many people die.”
Gun Week immediately contacted the King County Sheriff’s office, learning that in recent memory, there had been only one accidental shooting fatality in that area, several years ago. Simpson acknowledged that this was “an exaggeration.”
And that was exactly how Wyrsch described that, also. He said such remarks are typically made by seasonal employees, and he often finds himself having to do “damage control” with the public as a result.
A receptionist at North Bend told Gun Week that the entire ranger district is closed to recreational shooting. Pressed for details, she said one popular area specifically—the Snoqualmie River’s Middle Fork Valley—was a no-shooting area because of high use by other recreationists. Along the I-90 corridor, many areas are also off-limits to shooting since a negligently-fired bullet or fragment struck a bus passenger a few years ago.
A sheriff’s deputy who used to patrol that area told Gun Week that some people who used to shoot in that area simply didn’t use good judgment.
But Wyrsch assured Gun Week that so long as people are responsible and use good judgment about where they shoot, they may do so. There are just some areas where shooting is not safe and he tries to steer people away from such places. If he encounters people shooting across, along or from the road, it is likely they will get a citation.
The Bosworth memo was sent nationwide, and by now, there should be no reason for any regional forester or district ranger to not know about it.
In his memo, Bosworth emphasized “the necessity of continuing to use local and state level public involvement to resolve emerging shooting sports issues.”
“Where local situations exist,” he said, “we will work with the local interests, our visitors, our partners, and other interested parties to facilitate the most favorable outcome possible. Local orders and restrictions include appropriate public involvement, environmental analysis, and coordination with agency counsel and law enforcement and investigation personnel.”
He repeated, “Shooting sports are legitimate uses of NFS lands, and are subject to management by the Forest Service like other uses to protect public safety and property and the natural resources.”
Since Gun Week began pursuing this story more than a year ago, activists in Arizona and Colorado have become involved, and there appears to be a renewed effort to remind forest managers that public land belongs to everyone, including recreational shooters. Bosworth’s memo advised regional managers that the agency is “working on several key initiatives in the Washington Office to improve shooting sports management on the national forests.”
There does not appear to be any adverse impact on hunting. This controversy appears to revolve entirely around recreational shooting on public lands outside of the traditional hunting seasons.
Last month, in Missoula, MT, an interagency Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for fishing, hunting and the shooting sports was signed by the USFS during a meeting of the American Wildlife Conservation Partners.
“This MOU provides a sharing of technical expertise regarding shooting areas design and management, lead management, and a general framework for future cooperation,” said Bosworth in his memo. “The MOU addresses revitalizing our relationship with the Shooting Sports Roundtable, bringing additional resources to the field for problem solving and providing opportunities for shooting sports.”
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