PORT ANGELES – The Department of Natural Resources will continue to manage timber on land it will convey to Clallam County for a shooting range near Sadie Creek.
The 35-acre tract west of Joyce – in the center of a buffer area about 10 times the site’s size – has been in the works for more than four years but still has several environmental hurdles to clear.
County commissioners Monday approved a county Parks Board recommendation that DNR manage timber at the location, which would include shooting ranges as long as 300 yards.
Commissioners and Public Works Director Craig Jacobs denied an environmentalist’s allegations that the facility would have a 1,000-yard range and that the National Rifle Association would conduct the environmental assessment of the location.
Josey Paul of Joyce also said the range would threaten $2 million worth of salmon habitat restoration on Sadie Creek and the East Twin River with lead concentrations more than 1,100 times the levels permitted at federal Superfund toxic waste sites.
Jacobs responded that the county would follow the same state Ecology processes as for any other county recreational site, up to and possibly including a full environmental-impact stateÂment.
