As Tommy Martinez approached the Buffalo Fork River near Grand Teton National Park on Thursday, he was looking forward to another day of enjoying the pristine water.
But what he saw shocked, then angered, him.
“As I was walking through the campground near the river, I was seeing all of these orange, glowing discs in the water. They were all over. There must have been 100 of them,” he told Cowboy State Daily on Friday.
It didn’t take him long to realize what they were— clay discs, commonly called clay pigeons, that are launched into the air for shotgun target practice.
Somebody had been shooting somewhere near the river, but neglected to go fetch the targets that they’d missed and had fallen intact into the water.
Martinez lives in California’s Mohave Desert country, but spends several months of the year in Wyoming. Fishing on the Buffalo Fork River is one of his favorite activities, so he was incensed to see the river treated with such disrespect.
“I’m not a huge environmentalist-type person, but I’m a believer in ‘pack it in, pack it out.’ Leave things better than you found them,” he said.
He went about picking up somebody’s else’s mess, and then reported it to the U.S. Forest Service. He said that personnel from the Blackrock Ranger District were going to come clean up the rest Friday.
Avid angler and part-time Wyoming resident Tommy Martinez found these orange shotgun targets, commonly called clay pigeons, littering the Buffalo Fork River near a campground on Thursday. (Courtesy Tommy Martinez) 
The Buffalo Fork River near Grand Teton National Park is a popular spot for anglers. (Courtesy Tommy Martinez) 
Avid angler and part-time Wyoming resident Tommy Martinez found these orange shotgun targets, commonly called clay pigeons, littering the Buffalo Fork River near a campground on Thursday. (Courtesy Tommy Martinez)
‘BTW, You’re A Terrible Shot’
Martinez also took to social media, posting photos and scornful message aimed at the shooters on the popular “Yellowstone National Park: Invasion of the Idiots!” Facebook page.
“Somebody thought it would be a good idea to shoot orange skeet clay pigeons over the Buffalo Fork River. I picked up these clay skeet targets while fishing until my arm turned blue,” he posted.
“There are still so many in the water. Buffalo Valley trail 30086 campground #7. Thanks for littering the river, btw you are a terrible shot,” Martinez added.
Targets Are Biodegradable, But …
Martinez has nothing against shooting clay pigeons. He enjoys the sport himself.
But the campground by the riverside is a poor choice of location, and failing to clean up the targets was just too much for him to see and not say anything about, he said.
“There is a time and a place for everything,” Martinez said. “If somebody was up there trying to camp while they were doing this, and every couple of minutes they were hearing shotgun blasts, that would get annoying.”
He said when he shoots clay pigeons, he picks up as much of the debris as he can.
“If I don’t pick that stuff up, it can stay out there for years,” he said.
Clay shotgun targets are advertised as being fully biodegradable.
But that’s no excuse for leaving them in places where they just shouldn’t be, Brad Smith, head coach of the Cheyenne East High School clay target shooting team, told Cowboy State Daily.
Somebody leaving targets scattered all over a riverbed is unacceptable and reflects horribly on the sport, he said.
“People will argue that well the targets could be biodegradable, and it’s true they could be, but it still takes time for those targets to disappear,” he said.
“I think that this was an act that was very poorly thought out, and not a good example we want to set for our youth,” Smith added.
Martinez said the targets he found were black on the underside, which he worried could indicate that they might not be fully biodegradable.
Smith said they probably are biodegradable, but there’s still a small chance they could have contaminants in them.
“To my knowledge that is not true (that non-biodegradable clay pigeons are still made). The only way to know for sure is to send them to a lab to have them analyzed, to find out if they contain petroleum pitch,” he said.
Martinez said he’s glad that he found the clay pigeons and was able to clean some up, and that the Forest Service has agreed to clean up the rest.
And it’s a good reminder to enjoy clay target shooting responsibly, he added.
“If that material is just left out there, it’s going to affect the dirt. It’s going to affect the water. It’s got dyes and stuff like that in it,” Martinez said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
