Colorado Parks and Wildlife will award $600,000 to eight shooting and archery ranges across Colorado through the agency's Shooting and Range Development Grant Program (SRDG). The funds will go toward developing new places to shoot and upgrading existing ranges across the state.

Colorado’s SRDG program supporting the establishment, improvement or expansion of safe shooting facilities is one of the largest in the nation. It provides matching grants to towns, counties, outdoor recreation organizations, shooting clubs, parks and recreation departments and others for projects that establish, improve or expand shooting ranges and shooting areas - including archery ranges - throughout the state.

"Colorado Parks and Wildlife is committed to providing the public with safe shooting facilities," said Jim Guthrie, CPW's SRDG coordinator. "This year’s grants will help improve some ranges, but it will also help with the development and construction of new places for the public to enjoy recreational shooting. That's important for a variety of reasons, including providing a safe place where hunters can sight in their firearms, give recreational shooters a safe place to have fun and providing even more places for outdoor recreation."

According to Guthrie, some of 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. Each local project partner commits funds for the various projects.

"These matching funds from our partners leverages the impact of CPW's financial resources," he said.

This year, the SRDG grant will help with the planning and construction of a new range in Logan County.  When completed, The Logan County project will be a major range located near the Denver metro area, meeting a growing demand for public shooting facilities along the Front Range.

“Logan County has been a determined force behind the new range, along with all the volunteers who have helped with construction,” said Todd Schmidt, the area wildlife manager for the northeast region of the state. "Facilities like this are very much needed across Colorado’s Front Range. We are glad to be a part of it."

Since 2009, 33 counties have benefited from approximately 50 grants for a variety of upgrades and improvements.

The Shooting Range Development Grants awarded in 2016 include:

Chaffee County Archery Range

Construction of a new trail and shooting platform

$19,400

Devil’s Nose Shooting Area-Clear Creek County

Construction of three new 25, 50 and 100-yard shooting ranges

$197,300

Ft. Lupton Shooting Range

Initial development of a major new range

$131,200

Gypsum Shooting Range

Realignment of rifle and pistol ranges and erosion control in existing areas

$114,100

Dolores County Fairgrounds Range

Construction of a new 100-yard range

$26,300

Logan County Shooting Range

Installation of shade covers for pistol and rifle ranges

$80,700

Buena Vista Trap Fields

Replacing existing trap fields and runways

$11,000

Royal Gorge Gun Club

Construction of a new classroom building

$20,000

For more information about the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Shooting Range Development Grant Program, please visit: http://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/ShootingRangeGrants.aspx