El Paso County Parks was recently awarded a $15,000 grant by the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) agency’s Shooting Range Development Grant Program (SRDG). The $15,000 will be used to complete improvements at the archery range at Bear Creek Regional Park. Refurbishing this range will make the area more attractive and accessible to all archers and provide opportunities to increase archery skills for both sport and fun.
“We are pleased to receive this award and partner with CPW to improve the Bear Creek Archery Range,” said Christine Burns, Community Outreach Division Manager. “Improvements will reduce maintenance costs, enhance user experience and increase range safety.”
Planned improvements will support a safe, accessible, public archery range for recreational archers, bow hunters and our youth learning archery. Renovations to the range will include:
- Roof replacement (from wood shake to asphalt shingles)
- Install gutter system
- Storage shed installation
- Construction and install a wood structure to cover the seasonal rental of a port-o-let.
- Picnic pad and picnic table installation
- Directional and rules signage replacement
The CPW grant funds will support enhanced use of the facility and learning about the sport of archery. The improvements will allow the County to better serve the Pikes Peak archery community, to provide park programming and to introduce more youth to the sport of archery.
SRDG supports the establishment, improvement and expansion of safe shooting facilities in Colorado and is one of the largest shooting range programs in the nation. The program’s funds come from federal excise taxes generated by the sale of hunting and shooting equipment, in addition to funds generated by license fees.