PHOTO COURTESY OF CITY OF FARMINGTON HILLS
Recognizing that the City of Farmington Hills’ Riley
Archery Range has proved tremendous results from not
only the survey results, but actually proved that archery
participants became hunters, the Michigan DNR will
grant 75% of the funds for a local parks and recreation
department to build an archery range in a public park
using Pittman-Robertson funds. The goal is to build
the same style archery range, as Riley Archery Range,
in another community, and collect survey results that
proves the concept can be duplicated. If the results
are positive, then the goal would be to build 2-4 more
archery ranges in public parks each year.
In 2016, after 15 months of Riley Archery Range being
open, survey results for the City of Farmington Hills
archery range showed:
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5,230 people participated in archery
100% planned to shoot again
31.47% bought equipment = $766,081
62.94% planned to buy equipment = $1,532,163
73% interested in target shooting
23.86% interested in hunting (15.23% never hunted)
797 new hunters = $3,506,800
So imagine, if 19 other communities had an archery
range, and proved the same results, then 15,940 new
hunters would be born, generating over $70 million in
economic impact each year.
You can twist numbers and question results all you
want, but bottom line is that an upfront investment in
parks and recreation archery may be the solution for
long-term growth and sustainability in the archery and
hunting industries.
The mParks Archery Focus Area partnered with the
National Wild Turkey Federation, Pheasants Forever,
Our Global Kids, and others to provide archers the
opportunity to hunt in 2018. Over 100 people hunted
or bowf ished. Michigan Out of Doors TV (episode
1842) told the story well when mParks Archery was
featured in October 2018
For more information on mParks Archery, or ways you
can provide support to a local parks and recreation
archery program:
Bryan Farmer
Deputy Director,
City of Farmington Hills Dept. of Special Services
mParks Archery Focus Area Chair
email bfarmer@f hgov.com
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