Mountain residents concerned with the safety and noise issues from target shooters at Miller Quarry may have a long term solution in the near future, according to Zach Jarrett, Cascades Outdoor Recreation Planner for the Oregon Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

Jarrett was one of several BLM representatives on hand at a follow up meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 21 at the Mt. Hood RV Village, and noted that the BLM finished a new Resource Management Plan
(RMP) last August, which included designating the quarry as a recreation
management area and opening the door to closing it for target shooting within
the year.

“It’s a pretty powerful planning tool,” Jarrett said, noting the plan helps decide
what visitor activities are provided, how they are managed and how they are
protected. “Literally the ink is just drying on that plan.”

The BLM had been operating under an RMP that was completed in 1995, but
the process for the new plan began three years ago. Jarrett noted the plan
gives a land use allocation to every acre the BLM manages, which in turn
identifies the activities that are allowed.

Approximately 2.5 million acres in western Oregon were defined, with
approximately one-half million acres designated as a recreation management
area. Jarrett added that the BLM received thousands of comments during the
three-year process.

“The good news is that we went through a very very public outreach process,”
he said, noting the most time consuming part of the process is complete.
The RMP will now be reviewed in Washington, D.C., and while there is no
defined timeline for it to be approved, Jarrett said he’s seen it happen as
quickly as two months and as long as eight months.

“There’s a lot of competing uses on that area,” Jarrett said, adding that the
quarry is not closed to target shooting yet. “Some of those that are happening
here are not compatible.”

The December meeting was on the heels of another held on Oct. 26, which
was organized by Warren Bates, a resident at the Mt. Hood RV Village, due to
mounting concerns over safety and noise concerns with the target shooting.

In response to that meeting, Belle Verbics, BLM Natural Resources Staff
Administrator, noted that law enforcement patrols were increased (with
participating agencies including the BLM, Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office
and the U.S. Forest Service) to three or four times per week.

Verbics noted that the officers observed hikers, anglers and target shooters,
but did not notice anything illegal.
The quarry’s ownership is split between the BLM and a private landowner,
with target shooters using banks in both areas as backstops, with spent
casings, trash and bullet riddled electronics and other refuse used as targets
strewn about. Chris Papen, BLM’s Acting Field Manager for the Cascades Field
Office, noted the different owners, including other entities who own other
adjacent lots, makes management complicated.
“It’s a jigsaw puzzle ownership; that’s the way a lot of land in this basin is,”
he said.
Verbics added that the BLM is expected to continue with the presence of its
law enforcement at the site, but that due to the season, it may not be as
intensive moving forward.

After the meeting, Bates expressed his gratitude to the BLM for their response
and the potential closure of the site to target shooters.