Darn, those noisy, obnoxious, pesky, obtrusive hang gliders are gonna ruin our park experience!
Well, it seems the effort by the hang gliding community failed to convince the National Park Service (NPS) that we should be treated like hikers and rock climbers rather than snow mobilers and off-road ATV drivers. The NPS released the 2006 Management Policies on August 31.
As I understand it, we are no worse off than we were before. This was the status of hang gliding in the previous policies. We just lost a chance to make it easier to get permission to fly in each national park. Now, as before, before HG is allowed as a new activity in a particular park, the park superintendent must publish park-specific regulations for the activity.
Life is not terrible, but we did lose an opportunity to make it better.
Press release: http://home.nps.gov/applications/releas ... cfm?ID=686
The final 2006 Management Policies edition is available on the NPS web site at http://www.nps.gov/policy/MP2006.pdf.
Here is the relevant quote from section 8.2.2 of the 2006 Management Policies:
8.2.2 Recreational Activities
The National Park Service will manage recreational activities according to the criteria listed in sections 8.1 and 8.2 (and 6.4 in wilderness areas). Examples of the broad range of recreational activities that take place in parks include, but are not limited to, boating, camping, bicycling, fishing, hiking, horseback riding and packing, outdoor sports, picnicking, scuba diving, crosscountry skiing, caving, mountain and rock climbing, earth caching, and swimming. Many of these activities support the federal policy of promoting the health and personal fitness of the general public, as set forth in Executive Order 13266. However, not all of these activities will be appropriate or allowable in all parks; that determination must be made on the basis of parkspecific planning.
Service-wide regulations addressing aircraft use, off-road bicycling, hang gliding, off-road vehicle use, personal watercraft, and snowmobiling require that special, park-specific regulations be developed before these uses may be allowed in parks. (The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act statutory provisions (e.g., section 1110(a)) and regulatory provisions in 36 CFR Part 13 and 43 CFR 36.11(h) apply to snowmobile, motorboat, aircraft, and other means of access in units of the national park system in Alaska.)
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Cragin Shelton
http://craginsflightblog.blogspot.com
NPS: HG = Snow Mobile
Moderator: CHGPA BOD