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October 29, 2011
FORESTWATCH VOLUNTEERS CLEAN
UP CHERRY CREEK SHOOTING AREA
Canyon in
Ventura Backcountry Has Suffered From Years of Trash and
Graffiti Left Behind By Careless Target Shooters;
The Area Was Officially Closed Earlier This Summer
ForestWatch volunteers
at Cherry Creek.
For years, Cherry Creek canyon
in the Ventura County backcountry has been littered with a
colorful array of shotgun shells, bullet casings, shot-up
televisions, furniture, and other trash. It's the result of
unmanaged, unauthorized target shooting that has turned the area
into one of the most trashed sites in the Los Padres National
Forest.
On October 29, eighty volunteers
removed more than 2.5 tons of trash, making it the area’s largest cleanup
effort to date. Los Padres ForestWatch organized the cleanup
effort in cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service and local
sponsors Patagonia, E.J. Harrison & Sons, Matilija Pure Water,
Ace Hardware of Meiners Oaks, and Lowe’s.
The entire Cherry Creek
watershed has been closed to target shooting since July, when a
federal judge ordered the Forest Service to close the area. The
closure is the result of a lawsuit brought by ForestWatch and
other conservation organizations concerned about the trash and
toxic heavy metals finding their way into the nearby creekbed,
poisoning fish and other wildlife.
With the area closed,
teams of volunteers spent this fall morning cleaning up the area for
good, before winter rains washed it all downstream into Sespe
Creek. "The Forest
Service did the right thing by closing this dumping ground,"
said Suzanne Feldman, Conservation Coordinator for ForestWatch.
"Now we can bring the Cherry Creek watershed back to its natural
splendor."
ForestWatch
volunteers filled this dumpster to capacity, hauling out
more than 2.5 tons of trash from Cherry Creek.
Background
Unlike the three
other national forests in southern California, the Los Padres
National Forest is generally open to target shooting. Specific
isolated areas of the forest have been closed over the years for
public safety or environmental reasons, but across the vast
majority of the Los Padres, a person can shoot at targets to
their heart's content. The problem arises when shooters leave
these areas littered with targets and trash.
Thousands of shotgun shells and bullet casings are strewn across
the
main shooting area at Cherry Creek. Scenic Highway 33 runs
along the other
side of this hill, just a few hundred feet away
and in the direct line of fire.
Six years ago, the
U.S. Forest Service approved a plan to close the entire Los
Padres forest to target shooting (with the exception of a
handful of carefully-selected sites). The Cherry Creek shooting
area was specifically slated for closure, but forest officials
never took any further steps to formally close it down, and the
area continued to get trashed.
In 2009,
ForestWatch formally requested that the Forest Service take the
final steps necessary to permanently close the area to target
shooting, including issuing a closure order, posting signs, and
increasing law enforcement in the area. The Forest Service
refused to do so, citing budget issues, and the trash continued
to accumulate.
A bookshelf, wooden pallets, and other trash riddled with bullet
holes
are carelessly left behind at the Cherry Creek shooting
area.
But in June 2011, a federal judge ordered the Forest Service to
increase protections for wildlife habitat in the four southern
California national forests. One of the specific actions that
the judge outlined was to close the Cherry Creek canyon to
target shooting. In July 2011, the Forest Service issued the
official closure order, the final step needed to close the area.
The canyon remains open to hiking, camping, and hunting, but is
now officially off-limits to any form of target shooting.
Problems With Cherry Creek
Cherry Creek flows
through a remote chaparral canyon in the Upper Sespe Creek
watershed, passing through scattered groves of alder, canyon
oak, and some of the largest big cone Douglas fir trees in the
forest, eventually emptying into Sespe Creek alongside Scenic
Highway 33. The canyon lies deep in the Los Padres National
Forest backcountry between the Matilija Wilderness and the Sespe
Wilderness.
The main shooting
area is located alongside Sespe Creek, and at least nine smaller
shooting areas are found further upstream along Cherry Creek.
Each of these sites are littered with mounds of shotgun
shells and bullet casings that are leaching toxic lead into the
soil and adjacent creekbed. Old televisions, computer monitors,
and other household appliances have also been left here as
targets, and as they are shot, they release mercury and other
heavy metals into the environment. Many boulders in the area
have been vandalized with graffiti, and the proximity of the
main shooting area to Highway 33 also presents a safety concern
to passing motorists.
Abandoned televisions and other appliances at Cherry Creek leach
toxic
heavy metals into the nearby creek and surrounding soil.
According to data
provided by the U.S. Forest Service, target shooting has caused
six recent wildfires in the Cherry Creek area (in 1997, 1998,
1999, 2000, 2008 and 2010). Certain steel-tipped bullets cause
sparks when they hit rocks and can ignite nearby brush. At a
different site just up the road from Cherry Creek, a stray
bullet ignited the 21,645-acre Wolf Fire in 2002.
On a recent visit to the area, ForestWatch also discovered that
target shooters are causing damage to several trees in upper
Cherry Canyon. Repeated shooting at the trees has splintered the
bark and chipped away at the inside of the trunk, weakening the
trees and eventually causing them to fall.
A tree riddled with bullets in upper Cherry Creek canyon. So
much wood
has been shot off of this tree that it will likely
fall soon.
Several trees in this shooting area have fallen over and died
after being
weakened by repeated shooting -- creating an opening in the
forest canopy.
Next Steps
ForestWatch will continue to monitor the
area to ensure that shooting does not resume, and will report
all shooting activity to Forest Service law enforcement and the
Ventura County Sheriff. ForestWatch will also work with the
Forest Service to ensure that the public is aware of the closure
by posting signs.
Ultimately, any long-term solution to the
shooting problem at Cherry Creek will require that the gate at
the mouth of the canyon be closed year-round. This would allow
hikers and dirtbikes to continue to use the area, but would prevent
larger vehicles from hauling large amounts of trash into the
area.
We will also
continue to put pressure on the Forest Service to institute a
forest-wide ban on target shooting. Forest officials should
implement such a closure immediately so that the problem doesn't
move to some other area of the forest.
ForestWatch
directs target shooters to the well-managed shooting range down
the road, the Ojai Valley Gun Club in Rose Valley.
Vandalism and graffiti scar the landscape at Cherry Creek.
Vandals have destroyed the yellow "Shooting Prohibited" sign at
the
entrance to Cherry Creek canyon, in defiance of the federal
judge's order.
The main shooting area littered with trash.
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