Proposed Moose Range rules limit target shooting to areas that don't exist yet

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources said Friday it has not designated any shooting areas in the Matanuska Valley Moose Range near Sutton. Under rules the department proposed this month, those areas would be the only places on state land in the range where target shooting is allowed.

"None have been designated," DNR wrote in a list of answers to public questions about the proposal, which Alaska News first reported Oct. 7. Future shooting areas may be designated by the department's Division of Mining, Land and Water, it said.

People already shoot there. After the Jonesville coal mine closed, the area near Slipper Lake became an informal spot for shooting, camping and ATV riding, according to a borough-commissioned study Alaska News reported on Oct. 14. The Mat-Su Borough Assembly backed creating the Jonesville Public Use Area in 2017 with a resolution citing a shooting death, several near misses and shots fired at houses, Alaska News has reported. The Legislature created it in 2018.

For now, DNR pointed to a Mat-Su Borough request for up to 210 acres near Slipper Lake to build a shooting range, open for public comment until Oct. 30. The borough puts the cost at about $7.5 million, built in phases as grants and other money allow.

Under the proposed rules, firing a gun on state land in the Moose Range without a DNR permit would be allowed only for lawful hunting or trapping or in a designated shooting area. Private land would be exempt from that rule. Without a permit, people also could not shoot at steel targets, burn pallets, vehicles or refuse, or cut live trees 5 inches or more across at chest height.

The rules would also set a 10 mph limit for vehicles from May through September at designated public use sites and within 100 feet of Slipper and Wishbone lakes, and bar boat motors over 10 horsepower on Slipper Lake.

Asked why, DNR pointed to Man-Made Lake in the Knik River Public Use Area, where small children, campers, fire rings and heavy foot traffic "created repeated close-call situations." A 10 mph limit there "has proven effective in reducing conflicts and improving safety," the department said, and Slipper Lake sees the same kind of use. People could apply for a permit to go faster, but DNR has not drafted one.