In recent years, many states have signed cooperative Memorandums of Understanding with the Archery Trade Association (ATA). One outcome of this relationship is that state game agencies more readily consider using federal excise taxes on archery equipment to build archery ranges. At the same time, the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) is stimulating hundreds of thousands of young people to take up archery. This growth has led to after-school archery clubs and programs. State wildlife agencies are also players in NASP and often take the lead in organizing NASP programs for the state.

With hundreds of thousands of youths shooting bows in public schools, their enthusiasm is spreading to friends and families. They are all learning what many of us have known for years -- shooting bows is fun. With the rapidly growing interest in archery, and with state wildlife agencies now using some excise tax funds to build ranges, we are seeing archery parks and centers springing up all over. Here are just a few examples.

The John and Marnie Demmer Shooting Sports Education and Training Center at Michigan State University (MSU) is a 23,000-square-foot facility opening next spring. It will have 28 indoor archery shooting lanes and three outdoor archery ranges. All will be open to University students and to the public as well. The ATA had a major hand in making this $3.5 million Shooting Sports Center happen by pledging $500,000 to its development via the ArrowSport Foundation. The ATA also has pledged $50,000 for each of the next two years to implement NASP and after-school programs in schools and recreation centers near the new shooting center so kids will be ready to shoot and enjoy the center the day it opens.

Easton Archery's Sports Development Foundation has a goal of helping to build as many as 10 Archery "Centers of Excel-lence." Easton also wants to help more universities field competitive archery teams. Easton has pledged major support to the MSU Center, as well as a major archery facility to be built near Gainesville, Florida, and another facility in conjunction with the National Field Archery Association in Yankton, South Dakota.

The Illinois Forest Preserve District of DuPage County is upgrading its 15-acre Blackwell Forest Preserve archery park, and the Nebraska Game and Parks Division is developing an archery range in Lincoln. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has 13 new archery range projects planned, including the Sweetwater County Archery Park under construction on city land and the Montgomery County Shooting Complex costing $3 million. The ATA is helping with financial aid for a number of these centers.

Minnesota is building eight new archery ranges around the state. Georgia is building ranges, too. South Carolina is starting a community archery program in Charleston with aid from the County Parks folks. Arizona has new archery ranges and community archery programs as well. Alabama has a goal of building 10 archery centers around the state.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is helping Des Moines build

a 40-acre community archery park. Though not officially approved yet, it appears that this archery park will be built only five minutes from the state capitol. How neat is that?

New Jersey hopes to have a huge archery complex within two years, built within a few miles of Newark, and within 25 miles of more than two million people.