Dutton concerned about irresponsible shooting, fires in North Hills

Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton is appealing to the public for help following recent activities in the North Hills near Helena that are giving gun-owners and shooters a black eye, increasing the chances of a wildfire and putting access to the area at risk

At the May 7 Government Day meeting in Lincoln Dutton explained that in recent weeks people have been shooting irresponsibly and holding pallet parties in the area, which was recently rehabilitated by the Bureau of Land Management following a 2019 wildfire.

The fire, started by an exploding target, burned more than 5000 acres northeast of Helena, near Hauser Lake.

“We have maybe the bottom ten percent of the populations who are making gun owners look bad,” Dutton said. People have shot up the new signs and bulletin boards installed since 2019 , as well as just about anything else they can find. He said someone even shot across the bulletin boards, into the parking area.

“What’s going to happen is it’s going to force the BLM to make a decision. How do we preserve public lands for the public?” he said. “Responsible gun owners are angry. It's nice place to go shoot, there are plenty of backstops.”

Additionally, “pallet parties,” featuring fires using old wooden pallets, have also become a weekly occurrence, and threat, with participants leaving behind litter and untended fires.

At the time of the Lincoln meeting, firefighters had responded to about half a dozen pallet fires in the previous two weeks, including a couple that had burned into nearby vegetation, which could have led to another wildfire had conditions been drier

Deputies have stepped up patrols in the area and Dutton is appealing to the public for help in reporting violations or unsafe behavior.

“What we don’t want is for them to say for public safety, we have to shut this down,” he said.

He said someone has been making the effort to clean up the area, but at the time, they didn’t know who was taking the initiative . “We, the county, want to thank them for doing that."

Not only can the Sheriff’s Office cite people for violating state statutes, but since it’s on federal land, Dutton said BLM managers can also cite people with a federal littering offense, which can be up to $500.

Though his main focus was on the North Hills, Dutton noted that Lincoln faces similar concerns, particularly from escaped fires.

“It happens up here too – pallet parties,” he said. “If you're leaving fires unattended, it becomes a public safety issue. You’re going to cause a fire the burns someones house or kills somebody Then it’s not just an escaped fire. It’s negligent, or it's just a flat homicide. And we will pursue it.”

In the past, locals here have also expressed concern about trash left behind by some target shooters, both on National Forest land around Lincoln and on private land that’s open to the public.