EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second of a two-part series on a proposal for a rifle shooting range at Sadie Creek west of Joyce.
PORT ANGELES — The politics surrounding a proposed rifle range in Clallam County resemble the activity that’s planned there:
They’re noisy and potentially lethal — at least to people’s hopes and plans.
The antagonists with the highest profiles are Don Roberts, head of the Pacific Northwest Shooting Park Association, and Josey Paul, a West End environmental activist.
Other parties to the controversy, however, include the three Clallam County commissioners — especially Mike Doherty, D-Port Angeles, whose district includes the site — and members of the county Parks and Recreation Board.
They mostly support building the range along Sadie Creek west of Joyce and ending a controversy that’s continued for 40 years.
Possibly aligned against them is the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, which initially opposed choosing Sadie Creek for the range, and which could be ready to resist the plan again.
Lower Elwha Klallam
The Lower Elwha Klallam tribe criticized the Sadie Creek site in 2003.
“We urge Clallam County to oppose this proposal,” then-Tribal Chairman Dennis Sullivan wrote to county commissioners.
“It is too large, inconsistent with site conditions, requires too much infrastructure and degrades environmental quality and federally protected treaty rights.”
Sullivan said failure to respect those rights “will result in an unavoidable confrontation between the tribe and Clallam County.”
Since then, however, the tribe has waited to see what proposals the association will make and what permits it must obtain.
Mike McHenry, the tribe’s fish habitat manager, said the Lower Elwha remain concerned over the effects of lead and spent shells.
