Dear HCN,
The reasons the Colorado
Outward Bound School is opposed to the Canyonlands Backcountry
Management Plan are far greater than group size limits as implied
in Florence Williams’ article, “Outdoor Groups Fight Camping
Limits’ (HCN, 6/27/94). In fact, the plan proposes to eliminate
permits for commercial and educational backpacking groups
altogether, thus denying public access to the
park.
Outward Bound is not “asking for a more
lenient management plan.” Far from it, we are asking for a “more
rational” plan. We want a plan that recognizes the value of
wilderness education and does not preclude our very presence
through widely complex and inconsistent strategies for a new
permitting process.
The Colorado Outward Bound
School has for over 30 years limited its backcountry “patrols’ to
10 students and two instructors. The proposed group size of six
would mean half the amount of instructors and students, which
creates a situation that is unsafe and economically unfeasible. As
a nonprofit school, we try to keep tuition at the lowest possible
level and we provide scholarship funds for students who cannot
afford the tuition. We also thoroughly instruct our students to
diligently avoid cryptobiotic crusts and to travel and camp on
slickrock. Minimum impact travel is one of our highest
priorities.
The Management Plan deals with only 4
percent of the users of Canyonlands – those who venture into the
backcountry for multi-day trips. It does not deal with 96 percent
of the day use. Overall park use has increased 400 percent since
1984, but backcountry hikers represent a small percentage of that
increase. Outward Bound has not increased its use for over eight
years.
Mark Udall
Denver,
Colorado
The writer is
executive director of Colorado Outward Bound
School.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Outward Bound and Canyonlands.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
