62 Nebraskaland • May 2025
THE LAST STOP
Shaking my head. I can't tell you how many times I've
been left to do that when visiting our state's parks and
wildlife areas.
Some people are slobs. I don't understand how people can
carry a full pop or beer can to the lakeshore, but not carry
it back empty, when it weighs much less. Or leave a pile of
empty shotshells in the food plot where they were shooting
doves. Again, they weigh less.
Others are destructive. I have no clue what the people
who started a fi re ON TOP of a picnic table were thinking.
Or tossed one of those tables into a lake. Or when they shot
a sign off the side of a new concrete latrine (Is it bad that I
secretly hope that scoffl aw met a fate worse than Ralphie in
"A Christmas Story" and actually did shoot their eye out?).
But one of my least favorite sights is when I visit a
shooting range or wildlife area and see that folks have used
something other than a target for practice. That was the
case on a recent visit to the shotgun range at Pawnee State
Recreation Area near Emerald, where vandals shot up a
sign with the range rules. It's not the fi rst time the sign was
replaced. Vandals have also shot up benches and the fence
behind the range. Why?
I know our fi ne Nebraskaland readers are smart enough
to NOT do stupid stuff like this. I wish there was a good
way to let the folks who do know that they pay for the
signs they shoot up or the picnic tables they ruin, and they
will pay to replace them. Park and hunting permit fees pay
for development and maintenance of park and wildlife
areas, respectively. And when people purchase guns and
ammunition, they pay federal excise taxes that, through
the Pitman-Robertson Act, come back to the states to fund
not only wildlife management but also shooting range
development and maintenance.
So if you ever see some dufus doing stupid stuff like
this, report them to the authorities. Along with a ticket,
they can also get this valuable lesson: The more money we
spend fi xing things you ruin, the less we have to spend on
nice, new things.
THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS
By Eric Fowler
Vandals broke a rule on the sign they shot at the shotgun range at Pawnee State Recreation Area. ERIC FOWLER, NEBRASKALAND
