NAS Fallon warns off-roaders to stay off ranges

Written by The Associated Press

Friday, March 27, 2009

Officials at the U.S. Naval Air Station in Fallon are warning off-road vehicle enthusiasts to stay off their bombing ranges in Churchill County.

Maj. Will Mayberry of the station's Naval Strike and Warfare Center says training squadrons used the Bravo-16 range southwest of Fallon only sparingly in the past and rarely on the weekends. But he says the war on terrorism has increased the demand for training in desert areas similar to Iraq and Afghanistan.

He says ground forces are using live fire on the range and could potentially be training any time of the day or night, including weekends.

Mayberry says the Navy scared trespassers on ATVs off the range twice recently. He says equipment also was stolen on the Bravo-17 range in the Dixie Valley east of Fallon.

Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/03/27/state/n080313D20.DTL

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Community Voices

“During the past decade, I have personally had six out of seven elk hunts ruined by the careless intrusions of ATV operators. This epidemic has forced me to abandon one prime hunting area after another, only to encounter the same situation elsewhere. The shameful part of this picture is that the overwhelming majority of these ATV’ers are young and healthy, not decrepit or physically challenged. Maybe these riders would be more respectful of other people's outdoor experience if they knew we could ID them."

- Bill Sustrich, Colorado Backcountry Hunters and Anglers