I don't want to count chickens before they hatch, so, I'll try not to do
so in this informational note. If for nothing else, this information
means a lot to us at the Trash No Land organization. It could mean big
things coming, or, it could simply mean some great recognition.
This
past week, Bryan, our Vice President, and I met with the Statewide Coordinator for the Oregon Dept of Fish & Wildlife
Hunter Safety Education program. We spent all day with him, and our ODF
contact, riding around together having great conversations covering the
full spectrum of recreational shooting on public land.
He loves
our organization, our direction and our values! He's excited about the
fact we are working 'outside the box' in the development of the Wolf
Creek shooting lanes in Tillamook State Forest, Oregon, (not your typical shooting range!). He is going to
recommend that our organization be included into the Oregon Hunter Safety
Education program as part of their statewide class curriculum. (That
doesn't mean it's a done deal, but it means there is great hope we may
be part of the everyday Hunter Ed classes throughout Oregon). I'm trying to be reasonably by thinking it may
only be as a handout brochure, however, it may very well include a bit
of discussion on public land target practice and perhaps class use of
the lanes for their field requirements.
He has offered several
ways to help us towards developing more shooting lanes on state lands.
Assistance with ODFW grants for new lanes, required soil studies for
federal grants and brochure design and printing are just a few. He will
be a great asset to our ability to accomplish our goals of helping to
provide quality, safe and sustainable shooting on public lands, raising
awareness and causing a positive difference in recreational shooting.
He
has invited Bryan and I to speak at the Oregon Association of Shooting
Ranges meeting in December in Salem. We accepted. We plan to introduce
Trash No Land and speak about our existing and proposed lane
developments. The OASR can help in several ways... They are the ones who
provide the soil studies we need (at no cost to us), they offer special
donations to deserving organizations and offer some other great
financial benefits as well.
Here is the letter of support he wrote for our
recent grant application, from the NRA Foundation, for the improvements
we're seeking at the existing North Fork Wolf Creek Shooting Lanes...
To Whom It May Concern:
The
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Hunter Education Program would
like to express our support for the grant that you are seeking with the
NRA Foundation. Your shooting lanes on public lands (partnerships with
Oregon Department of Forestry) provides a vital role in providing a safe
place for the public to shoot at. These shooting lanes and the mission
of the Trash No Lands closely match the mission of the Oregon hunter
education program; this mission of promoting safe, lawful, and
responsible recreational shooting is much needed. This essential
partnership will allow for hunter education instructors to teach future
shooters and hunters the proper firearm safety practices at these
shooting lanes.
Your concept of providing shooting lanes on
public land will allow the public to have a safe place to shoot it will
also provide the hunter education program a long term place to provide
hunter education instructors a place to do the live fire requirement of
these classes. ODFW fully supports any projects that update and expand
shooting ranges.
This is a most excellent and valuable
contact to have! I have a good feeling that things will be growing
very well for us in 2018! I hope we live up to their expectations and
deliver the team work necessary to accomplishing the goals of achieving
positive change in recreational shooting behaviors.
As for the team work part,
we just saw it happen in a big way! Late last week, we heard of the
NRA Foundations' grant application that was to close on Nov 14th and if
we wanted to get in on that, for financial help this coming
Spring/Summer, we'd best apply now! A few emails and phone calls later,
we had several, from our 'War Room' team planning committee forum, working extra
overtime to compile all the info needed to satisfy the application
requirements. Down to the wire!!! It is a $10,000 + grant request to do improvements and upgrades to the existing Wolf Creek Lanes!
I
clicked the 'Send' button 2 min's before the deadline and got an
immediate response that 2 fields need input. I uploaded a PDF and
edited the second one, then made the mistake of reviewing the rest of
the application (for the 5th time at least). I hit 'Send' again at 7
min's after the deadline! My heart sunk as I saw the time. I
thought, "I missed it. After all that work! I missed it!" A few min's later I received
a confirmation that the application was successfully submitted! Three
days later now, and I just received an official confirmation from the
NRA Foundation! We made it! Grant Request successfully submitted!
That was real team work! No way
could I have put this together and made the deadline in that short of
time by myself. Thank you to Lisa, our Media Consultant, Randy of ODF, Aaron, our
Treasurer/Board of Directors and Bryan our Vice President. You all
took your rolls seriously and didn't waist any time in getting busy to
get it done! THANK YOU!
It's time to dig in, folks, and focus on
what we can do to build this organization into a viable, strong and
'get it done' type organization. We need to build membership, funds,
programs and start seeing some results for our efforts. We need to have
a ton of fun while doing it. This is not work, it's fun with a benefit
that makes a difference. Let's go for it!
Bill
