Amid mixed support and opposition, officials have drafted a plan for managing recreational shooting across the national forest near Front Range populations.

The plan has been years in the making — the “Integrated Management of Target Shooting Project,” the U.S. Forest Service calls it. The project was formally launched in 2021 to address what the agency deemed an “unsustainable” situation around Pike National Forest, sprawling between El Paso, Douglas, Teller and Park counties.

While target shooting is a historic, legal activity on Forest Service lands, a recent news release cited shooters, hikers, cyclists, off-roaders and residents converging for “unacceptable risks to public safety. This includes shooting-related wildfires, injuries and at least one verified fatality, rising numbers of user conflicts and growing levels of resource damage.”

The news release announced a draft decision by Ryan Nehl, Pike National Forest’s supervisor.

The decision, now posted for public review: closing about 73% of Pike National Forest’s 1.1 million acres to shooting — including the entirety of Pikes Peak Ranger District lands around El Paso and Teller counties, much of which has long been under “emergency order” closures — and creating at least five professionally-developed shooting ranges.

The vast closures are said to be in line with “desired conditions” laid out in a 158-page environmental assessment. The document lists certain proximities where shooting should be banned, including away from “highly used recreation areas,” homes, roads, waterways, historic sites and utility infrastructure.

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“It’s important that we balance the multiple uses of National Forest System lands with public safety, and this draft decision offers safer alternatives for target shooting,” Nehl said in a statement.

He referred to several meetings that gathered feedback, along with hundreds of written comments and collaboration with local enthusiasts and government agencies. “Public input has played a pivotal role,” Nehl said, on the way to “a workable solution to this complex issue.”

Some have praised the Forest Service’s efforts, including Jerry Smith, who represents a local gun club in Woodland Park.

“It’s just gotten out of hand,” he previously told The Gazette.

He echoed first responders over the years who have seen wildfires spark and stray bullets fly across the tract known as Turkey Tracks north of town. That area is one of the five sites proposed for a developed shooting range.

Turkey Tracks would be the Forest Service’s lone range on the Pikes Peak Ranger District, pending a land issue being sorted off Gold Camp Road. Two other ranges would be built on the South Platte Ranger District, north and west of Deckers, including one currently overseen by the Buffalo Creek Gun Club. The other two ranges have been identified on Forest Service roads off U.S. 24, on the South Park Ranger District.

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Turkey Tracks has been of particular debate. While some see the access and sloping, backstop topography lending to a shooting range, others living nearby see danger and gunfire noise prolonging — and perhaps exacerbating from the plan.

By banning the activity across the national forest, critics foresee a “funnel effect” of crowding and increased danger at the proposed ranges.

In comments to the Forest Service, Craig Nelson foresaw “commercial-like shooting ranges without any range officers present to protect the public.” Such supervision has been another point of debate, and while not ordered initially, the “adaptive management framework” of the draft plan calls for the possibility.

The plan’s aim for safety could cause an opposite effect at the ranges, Nelson suggested in his comments: “The project will concentrate many more shooters on the ranges.”

Nelson also questioned the project’s legality, along with others.

The proposed widespread shooting ban “is a bridge too far,” Gregg Sutherland wrote in his comments.

He cited a lack of data provided regarding concerns of safety, environmental damage and wildfire. Funding and enforcement are also lacking, Sutherland wrote:

“When most of the (national forest) is under a shooting ban, and the ban has boundaries that are difficult to navigate, these violations will surely increase. … This will require a significant increase in the number of enforcement personnel and associated costs.”

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While the draft plan does not address that — “law enforcement staffing levels are not decided by the (supervisor), and therefore are outside the scope of this project” — Nehl wrote in his decision: “I am open to using a variety of partnerships or funding tools to implement this decision.”

One partnership has been with the Southern Shooting Partnership. Representing federal, state and county agencies, the organization has pledged $400,000 to start building the ranges.

The environmental assessment calls for closing swaths of forest as those ranges are built — a “phased approach” with possible exceptions of areas “where target shooting is determined to present sufficient risk to the public, infrastructure or private property, or where resource damage has been documented.”

The Forest Service is taking written objections on a project webpage, where more documents and maps are posted: tinyurl.com/bdzxa7es

A final decision could be made around the start of next year, with implementation as early as spring.