Support wildlife, not gunfire, in East Bay parklands

By Ilana DeBare

Golden Gate Bird Alliance has joined the growing chorus of park users and neighbors urging shutdown of the controversial Chabot Gun Club and shooting range.

In a letter to the East Bay Regional Park District this week, GGBA urged non-renewal of the gun club’s lease because of its danger to wildlife, its disturbance of neighbors and park users, and the very high costs of bringing it into compliance with environmental laws.

“The serious negative environmental consequences, plus the daunting costs associated with extending operation of the Club on District land, significantly outweigh any possible benefit of extending the Club’s lease,” GGBA Executive Director Cindy Margulis wrote in the letter.

Since 1964, the gun club has operated a shooting range with toxic lead ammunition in the watershed of Lake Chabot in Anthony Chabot Regional Park, in the hills between Oakland and Castro Valley.

The East Bay Regional Parks board is scheduled to discuss renewing its lease on November 3rd.

GGBA opposes renewal of the lease for several reasons:

• Lead contamination. Toxic lead levels in the streams flowing from the gun club to Lake Chabot have been found to be more than 14 and 20 times greater than EPA benchmark levels. Lead is fatal if ingested by wildlife – including the 145 species of birds found in Chabot Park. Raptors and vultures are poisoned by eating lead-tainted prey, while other species may be exposed by drinking or bathing in lead-contaminated puddles and water sources. Even Lake Chabot’s nesting Bald Eagles are at risk from lead contamination.

• Noise pollution. Neighbors have complained for years about excessive and disruptive noise from the shooting range. In addition, the sound of gunshots is disturbing to hikers and other park users who come to the park for serenity and peace of mind. Gunfire is all too common and frightening in many Bay Area urban communities; our parks are meant as refuges from that kind of stress.

• Noise impacts on wildlife. Loud noise such as gunshots can harm wildlife as well as humans. At the very least, birds are deterred from using otherwise viable habitat by gunfire. In addition, researchers have documented stress in birds that are flushed by gunfire. Other studies show that birds’ hearing can be permanently damaged by the sound of gunfire. This is particularly worrisome for songbirds, which have finely tuned hearing, far more sensitive than human ears.

• Prohibitively high costs. The park district’s Draft Information Report estimated that lead abatement could cost anywhere from $2.5 million to $20 million. (At Pacific Rod and Gun Club in San Francisco, lead clean-up is estimated at $22 million, even though that club stopped using lead in 1994.) In addition, noise abatement measures would cost $2.4 million to $3.4 million in upfront capital spending and an average of $190,000 in annual maintenance expenses. This would be for a club that is already operating at a net loss – losing $121,479 in 2014! 

Please join us in urging East Bay Parks not to renew the gun club lease!  

In addition, the club should be held accountable for 100% of the costs of cleaning up the lead pollution it has caused over the years.

If the club is allowed to continue operating, it should be responsible for lead abatement plus 100% of the costs of noise abatement and other environmental compliance measures.

You can help! If you are an Alameda or Contra Costa County resident, please email or call the East Bay Regional Park District and urge them not to renew the Chabot Gun Club lease, and to hold the club accountable for clean-up costs. Tell them why a gunfire-free park is important to you. Click here for a map that shows who represents your area, or just email all the directors. 

Board Members

Whitney Dotson (Ward 1: Richmond/Berkeley) wdotson@ebparks.org

John Sutter (Ward 2: Oakland/Lamorinda) jsutter@ebparks.org

Dennis Waespi (Ward 3: Castro Valley) dwaespi@ebparks.org

Doug Siden (Ward 4: Alameda) dsiden@ebparks.org

Ayn Wieskamp (Ward 5: Livermore) awieskamp@ebparks.org

Beverly Lane (Ward 6: Danville) blane@ebparks.org

Diane Burgis (Ward 7: Oakley) dburgis@ebparks.org

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Click here to read the full text of our letter to the Park District. Thank you to our East Bay Conservation Committee for their research and work on this issue.