If you care about preserving Rifle Camp Park please sign this petition!



There is a plan to install a tournament-size disc golf course at Rifle Camp Park (Woodland Park, NJ). Rifle Camp is a beloved park, used frequently by many Passaic County residents. It is the only quiet, undisturbed natural park in lower Passaic County. Unfortunately, the County has a plan to locate a disc golf course here, which will change the entire nature of this treasured place.



Disc golf is NOT compatible with passive recreation activities, and it will conflict with the recreational needs of senior citizens and people with disabilities. The discs used for this sport are made of hard, heavy plastic (often with a sharp edge) and can travel at high speeds. This will make the park unsafe for hikers, birders, fitness walkers, and any other visitors. If a person were accidentally struck by a disc, they would be severely injured.



There would also be many negative environmental impacts. Over 100 small trees will need to be removed. Fragile ridgetop plants would be destroyed. Large trees will be left as obstacles. However, as discs hit the trees, damaging cuts are made into the bark which allow insects and diseases to enter. This will lead to long term decline of the forest. There is also a threat of direct injury to wildlife and birds, and the destruction of important bird habitat.



Installing a disc golf course in this park is not consistent with the goals stated in the County Parks, Recreation and Open Space Master Plan, and it directly contradicts the needs of residents, as reflected in the Master Plan. This project will take the park AWAY from the many residents that regularly use the park, and hand it over to a single special interest group.

We the signers of this petition, thereby appeal to the Freeholders, to reject the installation of a disc golf course at Rifle Camp Park.