Environmental Stewardship Committee Report

Tuesday, 28 June 2005

Cliff Hill reported on the progress of implementation of the environmental stewardship plan (ESP) at the June board meeting, and updated his report at the July board meeting.  Part of the ESP process involves digging 12 holes around the trap ranges, and getting soil samples from the range backstops, and measuring the pH of the soil.  (The pH is a scale for expressing the relative acidity or alkalinity of a substance, where neutral is 7.0, and numbers less than 7.0 represent an increasingly acidic substance, while greater than 7.0 is increasingly alkaline.)  The club's natural topsoil - the top five feet - like that of most of the Willamette valley, is slightly acidic, with pH values from 6.5 to 6.8.  Soil beneath the topsoil is much closer to neutral.

The soil in the areas where the clay targets fall is slightly alkaline, with a pH ranging from 7.5 to 7.85.  (As a matter of interesting research, Cliff made a slurry of crushed targets and water, and measured the pH of the suspension at 8.0 to 8.5.)  Our goal is to maintain the soil as close to neutral as we can, so that any non-biological materials are not leached into the water system before they can be removed from the soil.  We are fortunate that the targets tend to offset the natural acidity of the soil.  The pH for the berms of the 50 yard range, and hillside that forms the backstop for the 100 yard range measure a pleasing 6.95.

The targets, incidentally, are made of lime flour (the vacuuming of the extremely fine dust from crushing agricultural lime through a less than 100 mesh screen) and an electrobinder pitch to hold the target together.  The OSHA material safety data sheet (MSDS) on the pitch lists it as a "bio-friendly" material.  The pitch and lime are heated to 380 degrees, mixed together, and then injected into a mold.  Within six seconds of being injected the finished target can be held in the hand.  After molding, the target is dropped on a conveyor to the paint box, painted with the requested color, and then boxed.  The machines making the targets produce them at the rate of 9000 targets per hour.

Cliff reports that our newly planted trees are doing very well, and have doubled in height since they were planted.