EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of a two-part series on a proposed shooting range at Sadie Creek west of Joyce.
JOYCE — The shooting hasn’t started, but the battle has begun.
Clallam County officials say they’ve chosen a West End site near Sadie Creek for a long-sought public rifle range that’s been turned away from at least five other locations since the 1960s.
It would be the only rifle shooting range in the North Olympic Peninsula.
That pleases Don Roberts of Port Angeles and other shooting enthusiasts who’ve had no sanctioned place in Clallam County to sight in their weapons, target shoot, compete or teach their children how to handle rifles.
No public rifle range exists in Clallam or Jefferson counties, although other types of shooting practice are provided by private clubs.
The idea of creating such a range angers Josey Paul, who lives on East Twin River near the Sadie Creek site — and chief among Paul’s objections is lead pollution.
Other parties to the controversy are the three Clallam County commissioners, who are close to asking the state Department of Natural Resources to release 320 acres for the range in an early step of a long process, and the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, which is heavily invested in recovering its salmon fishery, but is taking no hard stand at the present.
Here are two viewpoints on the issue, with two more appearing Monday:
