BLM in Talks To Set Up Shooting Range West of Santa Fe
While the federal Bureau of Land Management closed down some 530 acres near La Cienega last week that had been used by the public to shoot up cholla, petroglyphs, TV sets and computers, the agency now is talking with the New Mexico National Guard, the state Department of Game and Fish and the National Rifle Association about opening a 40- to 80-acre regulated shooting range a stone’s throw away.
The proposed new shooting range would be open to the public, as well as benefiting all the agencies involved. The National Guard could do smallfirearms training there instead of busing its soldiers to White Sands Missile Range and Fort Bliss, Texas, for training. The Game and Fish Department could hold hunting training there for the public. And with a controlled range, the BLM thinks damage to the environment could be reined in.
While the project is only in the discussion stages, all sides seem optimistic.
“BLM and one of our staff have been conducting a very informal feasibility study,” said Lt. Col Ken Nava of the National Guard, adding that the Guard was approached by the BLM last year about such a project.
The proposed shooting range is near the acreage that was closed, referred to as the Camel Tracks area, and part of a much larger 8,000-acre area that is still open to the public for shooting.
“If you take Airport Road past the treatment plan, it’s near the polo fields,” Nava said.
In general, BLM lands are open for target shooting unless they have been specifically closed, as the 530-acre area was last week.
The area for the proposed range has a hill as a natural backstop, Nava said, adding that the BLM said the range would give the public some place to go “without just indiscriminately shooting up anywhere, everywhere.”
Even if the project is feasible, Nava said it could take several years to reach fruition. The Guard would still have to bus its soldiers to White Sands and Fort Bliss for “crew-served” weapons like machine guns.
“A range can only be made safe for certain types of weapons,” Nava said. “It would be much more convenient, though, for soldiers in this part of the state.”
Sam DesGeorges, manager of the BLM’s Taos field office, which includes the Santa Fe area, said the BLM has a long relationship with the National Guard regarding the Camel Tracks area.
“They’ve been doing training on BLM land since 1987,” DesGeorges said.
“A lot of people picture tanks and helicopters, but it’s not that,” DesGeorges said. “Their transportation division learns how to drive those rough roads there.” DesGeorges said that because of the increase in inappropriate shooting by the public — shooting at petroglyphs, cholla, glass bottles and anything that will explode — as well as the resulting increase in trash, the BLM has wanted to provide an alternative.
“The next step would be for the Guard to appropriate funding to develop the range,” DesGeorges said, “and we will work with them to develop a lease where we would lease it to the Guard. It would be a public range, and they and the public would come in. The management details would have to be worked out.”
DesGeorges said the proposed range would have hours of operation and a range manager. He said the BLM also consulted with the NRA.
“They represent the shooting public, so it’s important to have a discussion and say, ‘These are the issues,’ and one of the solutions ... is to provide the public a place where they can go to shoot properly.”
Marty Frentzel, spokesman for the Game and Fish Department, said the department had contacted the BLM to express an interest in having a shooting range in that area.
“Obviously there’s a need, or people would not be out shooting there,” Frentzel said, mentioning that a rancher even lost a few cows in the past several years when shooters took aim at them.
The Game and Fish Department teaches hunting and would like to have a shooting range where students could practice live fire, instead of just using BB guns, Frentzel said. He thought it might be possible that the department could get grants to help in running the shooting range.
