SOUTHERN SHOOTING PARTNERSHIP MEETING DATE: July 24, 2015 LOCATION: Colorado Parks & Wildlife Offices 4255 Sinton Rd. Colorado Springs, CO 80907 ATTENDIES BLM

Colorado Parks and Wildlife Area Wildlife Manager SE Regional Manager

Frank McGee Dan Prenzlow

Denver Water

Douglas County Environmental Resources Coordinator Assistant County Manager County Commissioner

Andy Hough Barbara Drake Dave Weaver

El Paso County County Commissioner

Dennis Hisey

Jefferson County

Teller County Right of Way Supervisor Senior Planner

Bryan Kincaid Dan Williams

US Forest Service Forest & Grassland Supervisor District Ranger District Ranger Recreation Officer

Erin Connelly Oscar Martinez Josh Voorhis Neal Weierbach

City of Woodland Park Colorado Springs Utilities Source Water Protection Project Manager

Kim Gortz

Minutes from Previous Meeting – Minutes from June 12th were approved without revision. Discussion on Rainbow Falls Accidental Shooting – Erin Connelly, Forest & Grassland Supervisor and Dave Weaver, Douglas County Commissioner and former Sheriff provided an update on the accidental shooting fatality in the Rainbow Falls area. · Incident occurred in an area that is closed to recreational shooting. · Incident has generated a lot of interest in managing recreational sport shooting including local and national media. o Most questions have been about enforcement -have highlighted: § cooperation with other enforcement jurisdictions § penalties § number of incident, warnings given, etc. · Officials have increased contacts with people and notices in the Pike NF, specifically Rainbow Falls. · USFS is very grateful to be a part of this partnership due to this incident so that a reasonable approach to recreational shooting in areas that keep the public safe can be established. · Dan Prenzlow of CPW commented about keeping this incident in perspective. While we in no way minimize the loss and grief of those involved: o There has been one recreational shooting fatality o There have been 17 or 18 river rafting drownings in Colorado this year o There have been many more deaths in other activities & driving o Hunter fatalities are way down and very rare. · Dan Williams of Teller County commented that it may be useful to have a consistent message across the partnership in dealing with the press and public. · USFS agreed to put some talking points out in terms of how they decide to close certain parts of the forest to rec recreational activities. Population growth; mix of uses; increased interest in recreational sports shooting; safety concerns, etc. are some of the things taken into consideration. Environmental concerns, such as shooting into trees, are another concern. o Perhaps going into background of recreational shooting in the area would also be helpful. o How this partnership may address public concerns should probably also be included. · DCSO – does have five firearms that they are inspecting. One has been cleared. Otherwise it was a random shooting that could have come from a long distance away. There are not that many deputies assigned to this part of the county and they are very busy on the weekends. They work to keep the floret safe but unexpected accidents can happen any time. New Member Participation – Dan Williams, Senior Planner will be the point of contact (POC) for Teller County.

Kim Gortz, Source Water Protection Project Manager will be the POC for Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU). CSU owns or controls about 10,000 acres in the area, especially in El Paso and Teller Counties, and has special use permits for some USFS land . Blunn-Pioneer Master Plan and Proposed Shooting Range in Jefferson County and city of Arvada – To address the growing need for recreational shooting facilities in the Denver Metro Area, the City of Arvada has proposed a shooting range as part of the Blunn-Pioneer Master Plan. Jefferson County is also involved. The group voted to send a letter of support for the shooting range. CPW and Douglas County have already sent a letters of support. The Summit County range was discussed as an example of what can be accomplished through a partnership like this. Some of the things that make that range run smoothly include donation boxes, sales of spent brass, volunteers and range safety officer oversight. The Chafee County range and Cheyenne Mountain Shooting Complex were also mentioned as great examples of well-run ranges. Parks and Wildlife provides $500,000 per year in grants for shooting range projects. They also offer smaller $1,000 grants. The NRA has grants in the $25,000 range as well. The military also contributes. Many avenues for funding are available. Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) – Neal Weierbach of the USFS has done a lot of work on the MOU. Primary participants should be land owning agencies. However, others would be considered as appropriate. Kim Gortz believes Colorado Springs Utilities will want to sign the MOU. It is important to formalize group in order to work together collaboratively and to occasionally take a positions or send letters of support on things such as the Blunn-Pioneer proposed shooting range. We expect to have two more draft before taking to legal review and official signatories. Suggestions for modification of the MOU included: · Defining the Southern Shooting Partnership geographic area of interest · Putting target accomplishment dates on the goals & operational phases to keep us moving forward · Formation of a communications group sooner rather than later. · We should write goals to each phase in developing strategy, but not as part of the MOU. · Clear up organizational chart to show that some of the “other teams” that may be developed could be directly under the Board and not necessarily the Planning Team as diagrammed. There was a suggestion to use term ‘strategy team’ or ‘strategic planning’ in the organizational chart. . It was decided that the ‘planning team’ is in fact the board, and that a separate planning team does not need to be created at this time.

Erin Connelly suggested using a more circular “Spheres of influence model” organizational structure diagram. The implementation phase will be more agency-specific, so a spheres of influence organizational chart would work well in implementation. The group accepted the circular model as described by the USFS. SSP wants to be a proactive, not a reactive, group going forward. o

A question was raised as to how other groups will be brought in? Answer: · Landowning organizations will sign the MOU and become part of the board. · The board can bring other subject matter experts into any discussion as needed. All agree there is an issue that should be addressed; we are committing to developing a strategy in order to address that issue. The group understands that the process of developing a Recreational Sport Shooting (RSS) Strategy will involve many other groups and interests before the discussion is over and any implementation would begin. The SSP should operate with a high degree of transparency as part of this process. We need to complete and sign the MOU first. As we progress from there we should be thinking about how we can be transparent and include public process as we progress. Signature of the MOU – As the various organizations party to the MOU are governments or quasi-governmental organizations, the signature of the MOU by the various organizations would have to follow their respective established processes. El Paso County would have it on a public meeting agenda – possibly on consent calendar for County Commissioner consideration and signature. Douglas would consider it at a work session, then to put it on the public meeting agenda. CSU would also have it on a public meeting agenda. Additional discussion on SSP membership – The representative for Woodland Park, William Alspach, had previously raised the question of their eligibility for membership in the SSP. Andy Hough relayed his explanation that while Woodland Park owns no significant land in the area, they are nestled right in the middle of the area of interest. They are heavily influenced by recreational opportunities in the area and the strategies developed impact them significantly. Oscar Martinez, USFS, suggested that if you have land that could be considered for recreational shooting then you could be a part of the SSP. He expressed the need for the “skin the game” concept, stating that if an agency does not own land in the area, they do not have to deal with recreational shooting problems nor do they fully understand all the considerations that a public land management agency has to make in dealing with recreational shooting. He suggested that such organizations’ opinions may contain expectations that place an undue burden on landowning agencies while reaping the benefits, and could skew or confuse group discussions. There was considerable dissent to the part of the condition that owned lands must be considered for potential shooting areas as a prerequisite for membership. Kim Gortz of CSU said they have 10,000 acres in the area, are having to deal with shooting problems, but may not consider any of their land for shooting areas as they all contain critical infrastructure. Dan Prenzlow informed the group that CSU controls many acres of USFS land in the area, and should be included for that land even if not for other reasons. The group supported CSU’s

membership and added that they should not be considered differently than Denver Water; Denver Water is expected to sign the MOU. The group decided to remain silent on this point in the MOU and consider potential members as they present themselves. The group discussed whether the group should reach out to Pueblo County to see if they are still interested in being in the partnership. Area of Interest: Consensus was that our general area of interest was from the south Denver Metro area to Pueblo. It was also decided not to specifically map or define our area of interest so that we did not waste time now in ‘splitting hairs’ over the exact boundary or ruling out potentially good ideas or participation in the future because we locked in a boundary before serious analysis of the issues. The group has a good idea of the area of interest, and will consider ideas or inputs accordingly. Long Range Planning: Andy Hough provided the final encouragement, which was to strategize in not merely addressing current conditions and demand but to consider a ‘master plan’ approach that considers future conditions such as population growth and the growth in shooting demand out several decades. Next Meeting: August 21st, 2015, 9:30-11:30 AM. Next Location: Colorado Parks and Wildlife, 4255 Sinton Rd., Colorado Springs, CO 80907 – I-25 and Garden of the Gods Exit.

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