The Vermont National Guard wants hunters and other civilians to stay off its firing range.
The Ethan Allen Firing Range covers 11,000 acres in three towns: Bolton, Jericho, and Underhill. The federal property is used as a training site for soldier preparing for missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, but officials say they’ve been dealing with an increase in trespassers.
Lt. Col. Matthew Fitzgerald told The Burlington Free Press that six intruders have been caught trespassing since early October, including three men using an ATV to drag away a deer they had shot.
Fitzgerald says the trespassers are putting both themselves and the soldiers at risk of injury. In once incident, a soldier had to take cover when hunters began shooting from 50 yards away.