SARATOGA SPRINGS, Utah (AP) — Spattered paint and bullet holes are littering public lands, erasing ancient rock art and causing conflict between target shooters and others.
As many as 50,000 people come to the western shore of Utah Lake each year to practice their shooting skills, and the Bureau of Land Management is working on ways to contain shooting on federal lands, reported The Salt Lake Tribune (http://bit.ly/1K2LrFA ).
"We are not trying to exclude a user group. We are trying to enhance the multiple uses on the land," explained Bekee Hotze, the BLM's Salt Lake field office manager. "But it can't be every use everywhere"
Near Saratoga Springs, the lakeshore is littered with gun detritus, and people have been shooting paint cans set atop rocks covered with ancient petroglyphs.
"If you take paint off, the patina comes off and the rock art is gone. It's pretty irritating," said BLM archaeologist Mike Sheehan.
State, federal and private land in the area is home to illegal dumps, stray bullets and strafed appliances, trees and rocks.
Hotze said the BLM hoped for voluntary compliance, but the signs the agency put up to educate people were shot up.
As the BLM creates a plan to manage the shooting activity, land managers are gathering public comment through Aug. 30 on possible alternatives -- including closing some areas to target shooting.
The agency has also proposed giving 160 acres to Utah County for a shooting range.
The problems around Utah Lake reflect growing conflict between target shooters and others using public land across the West.
Shooting is legal on most public land administered by the BLM. Hotze's office oversees 3.2 million acres in Salt Lake, Tooele and Utah counties, and only about 3 percent of that is off-limits to target shooting.
But there are regulations on shooting that are routinely ignored at the Lake Mountains.
Fire is not allowed to be directed at natural features or across roads, shooting at night is forbidden, and land managers would like it if shooters picked up after themselves.
Property owners near public land say safety is also a concern.
Lisa Lowery lives on the west shore of Utah lake and says she has counted nine bullet holes in her home, including one in a bed.
A round also passed between Lowery and her husband while they were outside the home before hitting a window, she says.
And one day in 2012, visiting school children near her home had to crawl back to their bus after bullets flew overhead. Retired BLM law enforcement officer Rand Griffin said the shooter was never identified.
"This is not a gun-rights issue. It's a personal-responsibility issue and common- sense issue," Lowery said. "If two bullets are hitting the small profile of the house each year, how many are crossing the highway and reaching the lake?"
Utah County Undersheriff Mike Forshee agrees that broad closures are needed, though he thinks people should still be allowed to hunt on the land.
"We can't enforce without definable boundaries," Forshee said. "If you say, 'You can't shoot here, but if you go 30 feet over there you can,' that's not right. You should be able to shoot, but we should able to protect it."