This spring, Wyoming BHA Chapter volunteers initiated a long-term effort to help clean up garbage and abandoned property from recreational shooting on public lands in the Jackson Hole area. The Wyoming Chapter began working with the Bridger Teton National Forest and local members to identify priority areas of concern where irresponsible recreational shooting over the years has resulted in accumulation of litter including spent brass casings and shotgun shells, clay pigeons, targets, tin cans, aluminum cans and broken glass bottles.
In early May on the annual Spring Clean Up Day in Jackson, a community-wide effort organized by the Rotary Club of Jackson Hole and other local organizations and citizens, a group of Wyoming BHA volunteers gathered at a popular shooting site on Flat Creek in the Bridger Teton National Forest to help do their part to make public land a better place for all of us. In just three hours, the group removed approximately 700 pounds of garbage from one area, 430 pounds of which was exclusively empty casings, shotgun shells and wads, cans, broken glass, and clay pigeons.
Wyoming BHA plans to continue working with the Bridger Teton National Forest to clean up public land shooting and recreation sites each spring as an annual partner in the Jackson Hole Spring Cleanup Day.
What can you do to help? Reach out to the Wyoming BHA leadership team if you know of an area that needs to be cleaned up, or if you are interested in leading a clean-up project in that area. Most importantly, do your best to pick up your brass, targets, and other debris when you are shooting on public lands and encourage your friends to do the same. These public lands belong to all of us and we should do our best to leave them pristine for the next person and for generations to come.
About Erik Kramer
Hunter, angler, conservationist, public landowner. Bow or gun, fly or spin tackle, catch and release or catch/kill/eat. It's all good!