I was just up at Reddington Road this last weekend, and the 4th shooting spot has closed by the National Forest Service, presumably due to trash.

There's a considerable amount of garbage and litter at the site (see the pictures), which seems to have prompted the NFS to put up barbed wire fences to prohibit vehicular access and posts proclaiming it to be a "Restoration Area". According to the posts, foot traffic is still allowed.

Update: The 4th spot at Reddington is now closed by the National Forest Service. It has barbed wire fences blocking vehicular access, and posts labeled "Restoration Area". It's quite clear that shooting is no longer welcome at that range.

The posts do say "Foot Traffic Permitted", which makes me think that it'd be possible to get a group of people to help pick up the trash (there's a LOT) and bring it to vehicles double-parked on the road (there's enough room for other vehicles to pass safely) for removal.

Pickup trucks would be ideal, due to their storage capacity. Heck, a garbage truck would be nice, I don't think anyone would have that lying around.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/heypete1/SAQmPtsx3KI/AAAAAAAADh4/NikIBa0bw-Y/s400/IMG_2314.JPG
http://lh5.ggpht.com/heypete1/SAQmP9sx3LI/AAAAAAAADiA/e-q3CPNtAyU/s400/IMG_2310.JPG

I think it'd be nice for the NFS to see the Tucson area shooting community getting together and cleaning up the range. They might be a bit more inclined to re-open it if they see that people give a damn about it.

Anyone up for a clean-up day? Hopefully before the summer rolls around and it gets stupidly hot.

Here's what I'm envisioning us needing:
- People. (Many hands make light work, and all that.)
- Pickup trucks. (The more the merrier. Large capacity for hauling trash. If you can secure a tarp over the bed, that'd be great as it'd prevent trash from flying out.)
- Leather gloves. (I have one pair, but those are for me. here- Heavy-duty trash bags. (My car isn't all that big, so I just use kitchen trash bags, but they get cut up by some of the sharp metal stuff. Some big trash bags would be nice.)
- BBQ and food. (If we make it an all-day cleanup event, having some burgers and whatnot would be fun.)
- Drinks. (Soda, water, etc.)
- A place to dump the trash. (My apartment complex has a few dumpsters, but I can't envision them being able to hold several pickups worth of garbage. Maybe having people chip in a few bucks to pay for dump fees, or a local business owner willing to help out by donating their dumpster? Any ideas would be welcome.)

If anyone has a contact at the National Forest Service, it'd be ideal if we could arrange to have the barbed wire fences temporarily removed so we can park the trucks on the range area, rather than on the road -- there's enough room for vehicles to pass safely, but it'd still be a lot more convenient to park closer).

Anyone interested? I was thinking of doing this on a Saturday in the next few weeks, probably from 10:00am to dusk, with a BBQ lunch. If so, post your availability in the thread (subscribing to it would probably be a good thing too, so as to be notified of updates) and we can figure this out.

Also, please post what sort of equipment (truck, trash bags, food, gloves, grill, etc.) that you'd be able to bring. Hopefully we'll have enough for everyone.

Cheers!
-Pete

should we do it when were already planned to be up there for the dead day shoot?

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Quoted: should we do it when were already planned to be up there for the dead day shoot?

That's a good question. I was thinking that the dead day shoot should be just that: a shoot. Sure, we might get a BBQ there too, but it should be a mostly-shooty day.

Of course, we'd pick up our own trash and a reasonable amount of garbage from the range afterwards.

Due to the volume of trash at the closed-off range, it'd probably necessitate a bunch of people working all day to make any sort of dent in it. That, and we can't shoot at the range, as it's closed. Not the most fun thing in the world (as there's no shooting involved), and certainly not something to do just before final exams. I was hoping for it to be a separate event so we can have fun at the dead day shoot, and actually clean up the closed-off range on a different day.

5 or more people cleaning up for only 1 hour will put a serious dent in any cleanup. Not sure why you are seperating shooting from cleaning, if you shoot there, you should clean there... same day no less

Just have the illegals pick up the trash.Give them some $$$ and a few tamales and call it good...

We did one a couple of years ago that Carbine Reloaded put together.

The forrest service provided trucks and stuff to haul the trash out.

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Quoted: 5 or more people cleaning up for only 1 hour will put a serious dent in any cleanup. Not sure why you are seperating shooting from cleaning, if you shoot there, you should clean there... same day no less hoot Of course, if we shoot at one of the other ranges (like for the Dead Day shooty goodness), we should pick up what we can at that range, but this particular range is really bad and it'd likely require more than an hour of picking up, hence the separate thread.

I'd be down to help, and I might be able to scrape together a few more people as well.  For what its worth, the 4th spot was not closed down due to garbage.  I was told by rangers on more than occasion that shooting was damaging the vegetation, and they were making an effort to confine the damage to the already established areas.  

Of course, they don't appreciate the trash, and that may very well wind up getting the area closed.

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Quoted: I'd be down to help, and I might be able to scrape together a few more people as well.  For what its worth, the 4th spot was not closed down due to garbage.  I was told by rangers on more than occasion that shooting was damaging the vegetation, and they were making an effort to confine the damage to the already established areas.   Of course, they don't appreciate the trash, and that may very well wind up getting the area closed.

Ah, well, I sit corrected. Damaging the vegetation is a bad thing too. Hopefully we can help out a bit by cleaning up, though. :)

What day are we looking at?

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Quoted: What day are we looking at?

Not sure. I've never really coordinated something like this.  hinking.gif

I was hoping to have people post their availability in the next month or two, then go with the date where most people are available. That's probably not the best way of going about it, I know...

I'm not even sure where the 4th spot is, I've never used it.

Unfortunately my schedule with work forces me to miss most arfcom events, (cant really get the weekends off). After graduation and getting a full time job that should change.

Quoted: I'm not even sure where the 4th spot is, I've never used it. Unfortunately my schedule with work forces me to miss most arfcom events, (cant really get the weekends off). After graduation and getting a full time job that should change.

Same here. Can someone create a map in google maps to show which one is being discussed here?

i believe the 4th spot, it actually around the bend a bit past the 3rd spot. its got no room for parking, and is kind of on the side of a cliff.

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Quoted: i believe the 4th spot, it actually around the bend a bit past the 3rd spot. its got no room for parking, and is kind of on the side of a cliff.

I believe you're correct.

If I recall correctly, there's room for a car or two, but not a wide expanse like the 1st spot.

Are we talking about this spot?

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Quoted: Are we talking about this spot?

Yes, precisely.