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The ongoing noise of gunfire on the Bureau of Land Management acreage near his ranch isn’t just a nuisance. Santa Fe County cattle rancher Jose Varela Lopez wonders what concentrating more of it just a few thousand feet from his ranch will do to the ability to use the land for anything but cattle ranching—and even that has seen its toll.
“I’ve had a couple of animals that have been shot to death,” says Varela Lopez, the 14th generation in his family to ranch on land southwest of Santa Fe. He stills runs a cow-calf operation with 15 mother cows. “It’s really heartbreaking when you see your animals out there that somebody used for target practice.”
He put up a reward to see if they could catch the culprit, but they never did.
For the last year, the New Mexico Game and Fish Department has been discussing developing a 150-acre shooting range near Santa Fe, but so far, the only area residents who seem to know about the facility, which would be located next to the airport, the recently opened Hipico Santa Fe equestrian center, and the La Cieneguilla Petroglyph Site are those who happened to attend the Game Commission meetings in which this shooting range was discussed.
That includes Varela Lopez, then president of the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association, who spoke at a September meeting for the Game Commission, voicing concerns over the lack of a public process as the department advanced efforts to set up this facility. By that time, the state board had already done a biological evaluation and cultural resources inventory draft report and met with a contractor to map out a shooting range that would include areas for rifle and pistol shooting, shotguns and archery, as well as a hunter education center, a multipurpose building and a host area where RVs could park for overnight camping.
“I’m just worried about cumulative effects of having so many people out there and actually drawing them out there,” Varela Lopez tells SFR.
The Department of Game and Fish's application to administer the range, on what's technically BLM land and which already holds carved-out berms used for shooting, unofficially known as "Camel Tracks," is approaching its April 29 approval date, with construction expected to follow shortly thereafter. A New Mexico Department of Game and Fish spokesperson refused to give an interview about the topic and instead requested a written inquiry.
According to commission minutes and presentations, this shooting range is one of 10 locations the department identified for expanding shooting opportunities. The new shooting range in Santa Fe is likely to open by September 2016, Lance Cherry, chief of information and education for Game and Fish, told the Game Commission at their September meeting.
The range sits atop a mesa encircled in petroglyphs. Some 4,400 images were counted in the last survey at La Cieneguilla Petroglyphs Site, and the Center for New Mexico Archaeology has already documented destruction to petroglyph panels from shooting.
BLM-managed land is open to shooting unless specifically closed, usually for environmental or cultural sensitivities, and shooters largely self-police laws that call for avoiding roads and trails, picking up brass and shotgun shells, having a backstop and resisting the urge to shoot TVs and bottles and other trash that shatters and leaves litter behind. The BLM, as well as city, county and state police, can issue citations for breaking those rules, but as Jeffery Miller, state chief ranger for the BLM, says, "It's BLM land, there's millions of acres and only a few rangers, so it's hard. We do hire some volunteers to try to keep track of areas."
Miller lists pros and cons to consolidating shooting at one range.
"If they all shoot in one area, it gets a lot dirtier, but it's easier to get cleaned up," Miller says. "If they disperse and shoot in a safe manner, there's still trash out there. It's just not as concentrated in one spot."
Most recreation areas are signed, he says, making clear which locations prudent shooters should avoid, though they should also check for nearby houses.
"You're responsible for your bullets regardless of where they go," he says.
Among the concerns in the Camel Tracks area are that people who do not know there's a shooting range nearby may hike the area to hunt for petroglyphs at La Cieneguilla.
“I didn’t think having a shooting range in close proximity to a trailhead that’s basically for backcountry hiking is conducive to that activity either,” Varela Lopez says.
On a recent Monday afternoon, Bryan Alcon was out shooting at Camel Tracks, as he has done since he was a kid. He hadn't heard of any proposal to construct a more formal range.
"It'd be nice to know there are changes going on around us," Alcon says. Perhaps the structure, with designated areas for different weapons, would increase safety and reduce the amount of trash left around.
"You'd probably enjoy your time more, not seeing all the trash and debris," he adds, gesturing to packed dirt littered with red plastic shell casings and brass and a hillside confettied with multicolored bits of broken glass and plastic. The popping sound of shots being fired the next hillside over echoes around the shooting range.
He's walked into the hills beyond the berm and seen "garbage for days," he says, and gone coyote hunting nearby and recognizes that it's tough to spot hikers and bikers.
"You just don't know, unless they're wearing bright clothes," he says.
But if the new range gets too crowded, or there's an entry fee, that could be a deterrent to using it.
"We're just kind of waiting to see the appropriate time in the process to express our concern," says Carl Dickens, president of La Cienega Valley Association, a community organization that works to preserve the area's agricultural traditions and acequia culture. "We just don't think it's a good place for a shooting range. We think there are other places that aren't near residential areas."
Santa Fe Reporter