Spring is in the air and trash is on the ground!

Most of the trash, on our public land forests, is at target shooting sites!  You won’t see much trash at a trailhead, but you sure will see a lot at a target shooting site!!  And that’s a BIG BLACK EYE on gun owners!

I am seeing a significant increase in the trash accumulation and a lack of respect for our public lands at target shooting sites in forests all over Oregon and Washington.  There is also an increase in illegal dumping at these sites.  Combine the left-behind spent targets along with the dumped trash, (that shooters often use as targets), and in the public’s eyes, it translates to “Look what the shooters brought to the woods, filled it full of bullet holes, and left it there!”.  It’s no wonder forest agencies want to close down target shooting due to the volume of trash, environmental concerns and public safety.

It’s time to dust off the cobwebs, suck it up and clean it up.  Here’s how we can start making a difference this Spring…

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March 29th, (edit: date corrected), the Yacolt Burn State Forest, SW WA.  Arrowhead Pit.  Hosted by Trash No Land.  (Details coming soon).

April 26th, The Yacolt Burn State Forest, SW WA.  Pick Up The Burn, annual multi recreation cleanup event.  Hosted by WA Dept of Nat Resources and joined by all recreation groups and general public.  (Details coming soon)

May 31st, Elbe Hills & Tahoma State Forests, near Mt. Rainier WA.  Hosted by Armed Forces Initiative (AFI), and Trash No Land.  (Details coming soon)

June 21, Mount Hood Nat Forest, OR.  Wildcat Mtn.  Hosted by Trash No Land.  (Details coming soon)

A couple others to fit into the schedule this spring are Wolf Creek Rd Shooting Lanes in the Tillamook State Forest, OR, and the 615 Pit in the Santiam State Forest, OR.

There will be more events announced later for July through September.

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In between scheduled group events, ALWAYS pack some trash bags and commit Random Acts of Cleanups whenever you recreate in the woods.  Trash No Land is not a designated clean up organization.  We do not have contracts with forest agencies to do cleanup projects, we don’t have crews who can get to all the locations, and none of us get paid to do this.  We are all simply volunteers who want to save our kind of recreation for generations to come.

I always send out a Blog post about each upcoming event and I also post it to our Facebook page and other social media outlets.  So keep an eye out for any events you can attend.  We like to have a good showing of responsible gun owners who take care of our places to shoot and help keep them open.  The forest agencies and general public need to see gun owners taking positive action to keep our public lands clean, safe and accessible.

As always, we need help furthering our mission of promoting responsible target practice on public lands.  If you can spare a few rounds, please do so!  See the link on the right side of this page and donate what you can.

Stewardship Keeps It Open!

Thank you!

Bill Cogley