After several recent incidents, foresters on the Panhandle National Forest remind everyone about shooting safety and responsible recreation.
Foresters working behind a gate near Hudlow Mountain and Hayden Lake have found spent cartridges, debris and resource damage from shooting.
They’ve even found a tree shot so many times it fell and blocked the road.
They are concerned that shooting may occur while they are working down range.
“We appreciate the freedom the forest provides the public for recreational shooting opportunities,” they wrote, “but with those freedoms come responsibility.”
On National Forest System lands, it is prohibited to shoot:
- In or within 150 yards from a residence, building, campsite, developed recreation area or occupied area.
- Across or on a national forest or grassland road or body of water.
- In any manner or place where any person or property is exposed to injury or damage as a result of such discharge.
- Into or within a cave.
- Firing tracer bullets or incendiary ammunition.
- Disturbing, injuring, destroying, or in any way damaging any prehistoric, historic, or archaeological resource, structure, site, artifact, property.
- Abandoning any personal property or failing to dispose of all garbage, including targets, paper, cans, bottles, appliances.
- One should always use a “bullet-proof” backstop, as well.
Let’s all work together to keep our forests safe and recreate responsibly!