During the past year American Whitewater continued their efforts
to increase paddling access to Ohiopyle Falls. After several meetings
with key people at Ohiopyle State Park and the Pennsylvania DCNR we
are making some progress. Unfortunately, nothing is happening as fast
as we might have hoped.
We initially proposed that the Falls be opened up outright.
After this was rejected, we created a pilot
program, which would open the Falls on days and times designated
by new park management. This proposal was then taken to upper-level
state park management in Harrisburg, where several questions arose.
American Whitewater, in our Falls Access Letter,
emphasized the importance of leaving the decision to run the Falls
to the individual paddler. We specifically rejected the idea of "certifying"
paddlers to do this.
Although the DCNR rejected our proposal, they did offer
additional days when we could run the Falls under a Special Activities
Agreement. Based on this and our additional
proposal we will offer two clinics titled "How to Run a Waterfall"
in addition to the Ohiopyle Over the Falls Festival on August 26, 2006.
We may also run a clinic during the Falls Fest. We have tentatively selected
the dates July 8 and Aug 5, 2006 from 2 to 7 PM for the clinics and are
seeking sponsorship from outfitters and manufacturers. All participants
in the Falls Festival and Falls Clinics will be entered in a database.
Based on our proposal these participants should then be allowed to
run the falls in a non-structured way at specified times in the future.
DCNR personnel have commented positively on this "database" idea and
will make a final decision on this after the clinics. We anticipate
and hope for a positive decision. Because of this we expect all levels
of paddlers to participate in these clinics.
We all know that running waterfalls of similar height
and difficulty is a mainstream activity for 21st century whitewater
paddlers. Even after thousands of runs though, the perception among
decision makers remains that Ohiopyle Falls may pose some unacceptable
risk. While the current plan to increase access is very cautious, it
is the only option on the table, and we have agreed to proceed in this
manner.
This is another small step toward our ultimate goal
of opening up the Falls to responsible public use. Your participation
in the above events is a way of showing Park Management that Falls
running is not a stunt, but rather, is a challenging component of whitewater
sport as a whole.
We assure you we continue to pursue our ultimate goal
of unlimited access and have developed a set of action plans that
we hope will speed the process up.
Thank you,
The Ohiopyle Falls Access Committee
Barry Tuscano - Charlie Walbridge - Barry Adams - John
Lichter - Kevin Colburn
To read the various proposal and papers
presented to the DCNR, check the links below.
