The state Department of Land and Natural Resources commissioned additional sound testing at the proposed Pu‘u Anahulu shooting range Thursday in North Kona, DLNR said in a statement.
The state Department of Land and Natural Resources commissioned additional sound testing at the proposed Pu‘u Anahulu shooting range Thursday in North Kona, DLNR said in a statement.
Organized by the consulting firm DLNR retained to assist in the preparation of environmental documents for the long-planned range, these live-fire shooting tests will lead to a computerized visual characterization of sound levels at various sites across the 1-square-mile range and surrounding areas.
“We conducted this additional round of high-tech testing to try and develop a detailed model that will help inform sound mitigation effort’s that may be required to greatly reduce or eliminate impacts on surrounding populated areas,” said DLNR Chairman William Aila. “This software model would become a component of an eventual environmental impact statement that would be prepared in advance of public comment on the shooting range proposal.”
Long sought by shooting sports enthusiasts and hunting advocates on the Big Island, Pu‘u Anahulu shooting range is proposed for a square-mile tract of lava flow, mauka of Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway, about a mile southeast of Waikoloa.
It would supplement the only other public shooting range on Hawaii Island (Hilo Trap and Skeet Range), which is limited to shotgun shooting.
“We have an open grant for pre-construction activities to assess range development on Hawaii Island and on Kauai,” said Andrew Choy, DLNR’s hunter education coordinator. “Gun clubs and shooting sports enthusiasts on both islands have been asking for many decades for dedicated ranges at which to practice their sports and skills.”