[Marco]

Public comments are being heard on the Arkansas Headwater Recreation Area's plans to change river management, as outlined in Marshal's post in the access section:

Arkansas River Management Changes

Some of the outfitters do not like these changes, and are lobbying hard for further compromise and more commercial use in the Numbers (possibly as many as 90 boats per day, up from the current 40). Note that the management plan already accomodates increasing the commercial boats in the Numbers to 60 boats per day.

Please attend to find out the details of the plan and express your opinion as a private boater.

 

[Andy H.]

Thanks for posting this reminder, Marco!

Hopefully by showing up and participating we can get a permit system for Brown's eliminated, or at least shelved, for the time being.

For anyone catching this late, click on the link Marco posted above for background info.

This is an important chance to comment on how they implement the Ark River Management Plan and could greatly impact our ability to boat the river.

If they have nametags there, please wear them and put some reality into this virtual community.

Anyone up for having beers after the meeting?

--Andy

 

[river dog]

Write your comments down

I attended the Leadville meeting, and I would recommend writting your comments down and submitting them so you are on record. Even if you only have a minor problem, write it down and say you oppose the plan, as the only thing that matters in the end is how many people are on record as opposing the plan.

Please keep in mind that the outfitters have changed the proposal AGAIN in the past couple weeks. When I went to the meeting in Leadville, there was no talk about raising the number of commercials on Numbers past 60. Now the proposal is for a maximum of 90 commercials on Numbers, which creates additional problems with the longer launch window.

Also, they did have name tags at the Leadville meeting, and I would recommend writing your name and "PRIVATE BOATER" on it.

Please attend, as we will not be listened to unless we show up and demand it!

 

[Caspian]

Where can we send written comments, and what is the deadline for do so? I can't make the meeting because of class.

 

[Andy H.]

If you can't make the meeting at REI

If you can't make the meeting, please send comments to Marshall Nichols, the private boater representative on the AHRA Citizens Task Force (CTF). He'll help make sure that your comments get to the right people. Please take a few minutes to check out background info posted both in this forum by Liz Hall (Liziis) and also in the "Alerts" forum. From what I understand, we don't need to go into much detail. Marshall's email is:

[email protected]

You should include your physical mailing address & phone number in case there's any need for the AHRA to verify that the comment they receive via Marshall is really yours. I'm not sure what the deadline is but will send Marshall a query.

Thanks for taking action on this,

--Andy

 

[Andy H.]

I just heard from Marshall on the deadline and what Riverdog mentioned above.

The deadline for comments is tonight. Please send comments to me at [email protected] and I'll print them out and take to the meeting. Include your physical address and info and copy Marshall at [email protected] .

As for increasing the commercial allocation on the Numbers to 90 boats/day, Marshall said:

"Nothing has been changed as of yet, it however has been proposed as well as a whole slew of other things, I don't think that anything will happen, but I could be wrong. The way it was proposed was that if it did happen, the count COULD go to 90, at 10 boats per year, provided 3 conditions were met, 1, no further resource degradation, 2 no increased user conflicts and I forget the third one. .. "

Hopefully we'll have a good turnout at the meeting,

--Andy