Woodbury Archery Range Closes Permanently Due To 'Extremely Dangerous' Behavior
WOODBURY, Minn. (WCCO) -- Accuracy is important on an archery range, but for parent Dan Capistrant, safety always comes first.
"Can't cross this line until everybody is done shooting," he advised while waiting for another family to finish hitting targets.
He brought his family to Lake Elmo Park Reserve just like Bill Josten, who also tries to make sure his children avoid making bad decisions with a bow and arrow in hand.
"You gotta make sure you're doing it safely, you want to make sure that they're not gonna get hurt, they're not gonna hurt anybody else," said Josten.
That is the concern at the now-barren range at Carver Lake Park. Park officials said archers were intentionally shooting well over the targets and past the berm. Arrows were landing in a Bailey's Nursery field on the other side, a place where employees tend to plants.
"You're always responsible for anything you put down range and one of the cardinal rules is know your target and what's beyond it, so you always have to be safe with whatever you're sending down," said Josten.
A sign at the range warned archers that shooting beyond the targets is prohibited and if the behavior continued the range would permanently close. Below that sign was a new, makeshift one proclaiming the park closed as of April 18 for aforementioned behavior.
"I think it's a good idea for them to close it down and rethink what they could do to make it safer over there," said Capistrant.
Park officials haven't said if there's a plan to move the range to a different area or reconfigure the closed one. The shooting bales have been removed as well.
Instead, they're aiming people towards Lake Elmo Park Reserve range, where the land beyond the berm isn't filled with neighboring workers. Only Woodbury Parks and Recreation youth archery courses will continue at the closed range.
The people who shot arrows over the berm could be prosecuted according to the posted sign.
"I hope that for those people that sort of did give all sportsmen sort of a black eye that it's reinforcing to everybody that you're always going to be a steward of the sport," said Josten.
The city plans to monitor the closed range to make sure there isn't any unwanted activity happening there.
