The shouts of "Save Rifle Camp Park" could be heard Sunday morning as a dozen or so protesters gathered at the entrance of the county park to express their opposition to a plan to build a disc golf course.

The Passaic County Parks Department and the nonprofit Friends of Passaic County Parks received a grant for $20,000 from the Horizon Foundation to install a proposed nine-hole course. The course is estimated to spread over 14 to 18 acres, and around 100 trees, less than 4 inches in diameter, will be removed.

Disc golf is played by throwing a flying disc, similar to a Frisbee, at a disc pole "hole" — essentially a basket on a pole. A course typically has nine or 18 holes. The object of the game is to complete each hole with the fewest throws, starting from a tee area and finishing at the disc pole hole.

The Passaic County freeholders have met with much resistance from some of the people who spend their time in the park.

"The freeholders lack global insight," Paterson resident Sandy Shevack said.

Shevack said the disc golf course would not only have a negative local effect but also a negative global effect. He said the installation of the course would destroy habitats and cause problems far beyond the borders of the 225-acre Rifle Camp Park. Shevack visits the park almost every day and said it should remain a natural park.

He is not alone. Fellow Paterson resident Danusha Goska agrees that there are plenty of other places the course could go. Goska, who is an anthropology professor at William Paterson University, said people need to be able to "escape the pressures of human civilization."

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"If we start moving human civilization into the park, we take away that escape, and people need that escape," Goska said.

The protesters fear that the course will damage the surrounding environment, pose safety risks, drive out other park users and disturb the many birds that call the park home, including several threatened species.

The park has been designated as an important bird area, or IBA, by the Audubon Society, protest organizer and biologist Dianne Conner said, noting that people come from across the state and the country to birdwatch at the park. Important birds, like the red-headed woodpecker and the barred owl, call the park home, and the removal of trees can affect the birds as well as bats. Conner said the removal of the habitats would result in the animals' disappearing.

"I keep hearing this argument that they're trying to get people to come out and exercise," Conner said. "We're already here. If you destroy the habitat, you destroy our recreation. It's passive recreation versus active recreation. If you have active recreation and passive recreation, you don't have both. You just have active."

Since moving to Woodland Park last year, former Montclair resident Steve Young finds himself in the park more often and sees much wildlife each time he visits.

"The last thing this park needs is a golf course," Young said.

The group is also working to get signatures on a petition on Change.org to present to the Freeholder Board. As of Sunday afternoon, 919 people had pledged their support.

Goska waved at cars as they passed; some were honking, but whether it was in support or opposition was unclear.

"People need that escape, and from that escape, human creativity and human spirituality and human problems emerge," Goska said. "It's been testified to for centuries by nature lovers that you go into a natural place and see life anew and feel newly recharged to solve your problems in a new way you'd never figure out on the streets of the city."