Scouts Target Trash at Shooting Range

Enrique Tiongson adjusted his wide-rimmed hat, squinted through the sunlight and surveyed the land. The 8-year-old Camarillo Cub Scout didn’t like what he saw.

Bits of shattered glass, brass rifle casings and thousands of spent plastic shotgun rounds coated the forest floor. Dotting the brushy hillsides were rusted, bullet-riddled car parts, appliances and shreds of scrap metal. Everywhere Enrique looked there was something to find--something that didn’t belong.

“Guns shouldn’t be made,” he said matter-of-factly. “And people should clean up what they do.”

Enrique and about 150 other boys ages 7 to 16 from the Ventura County Council of the Boy Scouts of America--as well as their friends and family members--spent Saturday morning picking up and hauling out more than 2 1/2 tons of trash from Cherry Creek, a popular target-shooting range in Los Padres National Forest, about 30 miles north of Ojai.

“It used to be a beautiful area,” said John Hyatt of the Ojai Ranger District office of the U.S. Forest Service, which coordinated the cleanup with the Boy Scouts as part of the High Adventure Team conservation program.

Target shooting is permitted at Cherry Creek, but the Forest Service policy is “pack it in, pack it out,” Hyatt said. The shooting range moved there several years ago from Rose Valley, which was shut down because efforts to clean up shattered glass bottles week after week became overwhelming. The same thing could happen at Cherry Creek, he said.

“It’s a shame,” Hyatt said, noting that he uses the shooting area frequently but always cleans up after himself. “A few ruin it for the many.”

The task for the young volunteers Saturday was daunting. When they descended into the valley, many just stood there, scratching their heads and walking over the sea of debris.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said 13-year-old Brennan Mount of Ventura. Scouts from Simi Valley to Ojai took part in the three-hour cleanup and earned community service hours.

“I think it’s good we’re doing it, but I think it’s sad we have to,” said 12-year-old Zak Ziv of Newbury Park. “This is nasty.”

But when they got the word to begin, the boys didn’t hesitate. They grabbed bags, gloves and a partner and took to the hillsides, creek beds and valleys.

Amid the rustling of plastic and crunching of aluminum came frequent shouts of show-and-tell.

“I found a car headlight!”

“Hey, a piece of a skateboard!”

“Dad, look, a bowling pin!”

Ventura County sheriff’s deputies oversaw the cleanup and collected unspent shotgun and rifle rounds. Adult volunteers dumped handfuls of the live bullets into boxes and buckets throughout the day.

Volunteers found a plastic traffic cone, an old street sign and remnants of a blown-up personal computer--its guts of colorful plastic wires and metal plates strewn about.

“That was really cool,” said 13-year-old Gary Weeks of Newbury Park. He and fellow Scouts Scott Cutler, 13, and Scott Anderson, 15, posed for a picture with their discovery.

It’s been a year since the area was tidied up, and Forest Service officials said the periodic sweeps are necessary to protect wildlife--including deer, condors and rabbits--living in the area. Unspent ammunition can cause lead poisoning in animals.

Moorpark Boy Scouts Daniel Eifert, 13, Carl Stevens, 12, and Clayton Fernandez, 15, hauled in their second large bag stuffed with trash as the landscape began to look less cluttered.

“It’s fun seeing it all cleared up,” Clayton said. “And knowing we’re going to make people mad when they get here and there’s no more targets.”

At the end of the day, it was a dramatic difference, Enrique pointed out.

“We really helped the environment,” he said.