I received permission to cross-post a message written by Paul Kiendl. I took the essence of his message that is relevant to promoting expanding free flight in the SNP.
This situation rather reminded me of a rather parallel case that took place in our area. In 1996, there was major flood on the Potomac River and the NPS banned kayakers from entering the river. A highly experienced kayaker by the name of David Hearn evaded the barriers and police tape, and secretly launched. Having completed an undoubtedly epic run, he was promptly arrested by the NPS police. The result…. : “The case, thrown out in federal court, established the precedent he relied on yesterday: Expert kayakers alone may enter the river when the water runs so high.” I suspect that in this case the local or national organization and members rallied and weighed-in to support that miscreant.
Source: http://www.daveyhearn.com/Coaching/Whit ... 0surge.htm
And the long-term results of that incident are summarized in a 2011 WPost article : “But after decades of tension between park rangers and daredevil river runners — marked by shouting matches, threats of fines and the controversial arrest of an Olympic paddler — the kayakers and the Park Service have charted a new course: working together to keep the river safe.’’
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc- ... story.html
Gee, do you think there could be a lesson for the club in this story.
This Hogback episode remains a golden opportunity for the BOD to cement relations with the NPS
Expanding activities in National Parks
Moderator: CHGPA BOD
Re: Expanding activities in National Parks
I am a good friend of David Hearns, although I was not there that day, I have paddled the Potomac countless times, including periods of exceptionally high water. Davey was out on an epic day, surfing a wave near Brookmont, MD that only appears during very high water. Many boaters were out that day. A TV news camera crew was out too. The video is very clear. The US Park Police called Davey over to talk to him, then they jumped into the river and grabbed and arrested him.
The charges against him were dismissed because he was not trespassing or breaking any laws. The US Park Police had closed the C&O Canal Park; however, Davey was on the river. The river is not part of the Park but is controlled by the MD Department of Natural Resources. At the trial, Davey's attorney asked the MD DNR is the river was closed, and the answer was that the river is never closed. There are many access points from VA, so the police could not prove that Davey trespassed to enter the river. Accordingly, I don't believe this is a good comparison to our case.
Because kayakers can put in on the river and then hike up the rocks and run Great Falls, the Park Police could not stop people from running the falls. Also, there may have been some senior rangers that were well know paddlers too. The rangers were concerned that we were setting a bad example for Park visitors and were forced to deal with us. Ultimately, we were able to work out the protocols for running the Falls.
However, I recall traveling with a park ranger in Yellowstone. He pointed down to the Yellowstone River and said that seeing a kayaker on that river would ruin the experience for everyone visiting the park. I decided not to argue with him, but I have not yet figured out a way to convince someone with that perspective that kayaking and hang gliding would not ruin park experiences for other visitors. But that is the perspective that I think we need to be responsive to. I always thought that one big advantage of hang gliding was that most rangers don't look up!
Anyway, I am all for working with the park service but think we should try to offer solutions that work from their perspective too.
Tom McGowan
The charges against him were dismissed because he was not trespassing or breaking any laws. The US Park Police had closed the C&O Canal Park; however, Davey was on the river. The river is not part of the Park but is controlled by the MD Department of Natural Resources. At the trial, Davey's attorney asked the MD DNR is the river was closed, and the answer was that the river is never closed. There are many access points from VA, so the police could not prove that Davey trespassed to enter the river. Accordingly, I don't believe this is a good comparison to our case.
Because kayakers can put in on the river and then hike up the rocks and run Great Falls, the Park Police could not stop people from running the falls. Also, there may have been some senior rangers that were well know paddlers too. The rangers were concerned that we were setting a bad example for Park visitors and were forced to deal with us. Ultimately, we were able to work out the protocols for running the Falls.
However, I recall traveling with a park ranger in Yellowstone. He pointed down to the Yellowstone River and said that seeing a kayaker on that river would ruin the experience for everyone visiting the park. I decided not to argue with him, but I have not yet figured out a way to convince someone with that perspective that kayaking and hang gliding would not ruin park experiences for other visitors. But that is the perspective that I think we need to be responsive to. I always thought that one big advantage of hang gliding was that most rangers don't look up!
Anyway, I am all for working with the park service but think we should try to offer solutions that work from their perspective too.
Tom McGowan
Re: Expanding activities in National Parks
I heard David Hearns may have been trespassing, just that he did not admit it and the park service could not prove it. Tom C tried this same approach as this case. Tom tried to claim that there are many access points and that he could have launched from Woodstock outside of the park. But the ranger had prior knowledge that one of the pilots got stuck in a tree on launch at Hogback and threatened arrest and a night in jail so Tom admitted that he launched from Hogback. Had the launch incident not happened the cases would have been more similar.
Also in this case none of the rangers paraglide or hang glide. It would be good to offer tandem flights to rangers to educate them about what we do to help promote the sport. We've offered this to the Washington National Forest Ranger who oversaw the Edith's Gap cleanup project - the same ranger we're working with to fix up Woodstock. Maybe if we had people on the inside we could start to relax the rules for all national parks nationwide.
Hogback is occasionally closed for a few months of the year for Falcon Restoration. The SNP is in direct communication with me about exact dates for that closure every year and we have respected that project for several years now. Sometimes the park is completely closed, which just happened last year during the sequester and everyone respected that. We even stopped flying Woodstock because we weren't totally sure if it was allowed or not. So we do have a history of respecting their authority.
Part of the problem in this case is that Hogback had been flown regularly for years by PG pilots with the knowledge and apparent acquiescence of the SNP rangers. Sometime (maybe around 2008), a PG pilot was stopped by an SNP ranger and asked about his intentions. This PG pilot stated he and the others with him had just flown PG at Hogback. The SNP ranger was curious, a friendly discussion ensued regarding PG flying. At no point in this discussion did the SNP ranger express any objection to PG flying Hogback. After this incident, the PG community assumed implicit SNP permission to fly PG at Hogback and started flying Hogback regularly. The VA State Paragliding distance record flight was made from Hogback. http://ushpa.aero/comppgstaterecords.asp
What I don't know is how the members in the whitewater community felt about David Hearn’s actions. Whether they believed he was trespassing or not and whether they believed he was endangering access for the rest of the community. Perhaps the whitewater community was less divided because they have the same boat type?
Also in this case none of the rangers paraglide or hang glide. It would be good to offer tandem flights to rangers to educate them about what we do to help promote the sport. We've offered this to the Washington National Forest Ranger who oversaw the Edith's Gap cleanup project - the same ranger we're working with to fix up Woodstock. Maybe if we had people on the inside we could start to relax the rules for all national parks nationwide.
Hogback is occasionally closed for a few months of the year for Falcon Restoration. The SNP is in direct communication with me about exact dates for that closure every year and we have respected that project for several years now. Sometimes the park is completely closed, which just happened last year during the sequester and everyone respected that. We even stopped flying Woodstock because we weren't totally sure if it was allowed or not. So we do have a history of respecting their authority.
Part of the problem in this case is that Hogback had been flown regularly for years by PG pilots with the knowledge and apparent acquiescence of the SNP rangers. Sometime (maybe around 2008), a PG pilot was stopped by an SNP ranger and asked about his intentions. This PG pilot stated he and the others with him had just flown PG at Hogback. The SNP ranger was curious, a friendly discussion ensued regarding PG flying. At no point in this discussion did the SNP ranger express any objection to PG flying Hogback. After this incident, the PG community assumed implicit SNP permission to fly PG at Hogback and started flying Hogback regularly. The VA State Paragliding distance record flight was made from Hogback. http://ushpa.aero/comppgstaterecords.asp
What I don't know is how the members in the whitewater community felt about David Hearn’s actions. Whether they believed he was trespassing or not and whether they believed he was endangering access for the rest of the community. Perhaps the whitewater community was less divided because they have the same boat type?
Re: Expanding activities in National Parks
Hey Matt
I just don't think Davey's case is that material here. The Park was not even considering broader action than just going after Davey for this one incident.
More generally, however, a protocol was worked out with the Park regarding kayaking down Great Falls which was great progress from early days. Like you said about our relationship with the park in general, I think we have a good relationship with them and should work to strengthen that relationship and how we can expand our use of the park. In that sense, kayaking on Great Falls serves as an example of how seemly difficult issues can be resolved to each side's satisfaction.
Tom McGowan
I just don't think Davey's case is that material here. The Park was not even considering broader action than just going after Davey for this one incident.
More generally, however, a protocol was worked out with the Park regarding kayaking down Great Falls which was great progress from early days. Like you said about our relationship with the park in general, I think we have a good relationship with them and should work to strengthen that relationship and how we can expand our use of the park. In that sense, kayaking on Great Falls serves as an example of how seemly difficult issues can be resolved to each side's satisfaction.
Tom McGowan