Rachel Odell’s article about the whitewater boating
ban in Yellowstone National Park missed the heart of the issue: The
standard for use in our national parks which was established by the
National Park Service Organic Act in 1916 implies that as long as a
use does not damage the resource, the National Park Service should
allow that activity (HCN, 3/15/99).
I’ve never
heard the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone River called the
“Everest” of rivers. That title has been reserved for the Tsangpo
River in Tibet. It’s not that paddling Black Canyon isn’t a
skillful feat, but it’s no Everest and has been done plenty of
times since the “70s, and always in a day. There are plenty of
scenic, calm stretches in Black Canyon where paddlers become
innocuous floaters, enjoying their national park from a fluid
perspective. Big rapids roar in the canyon also, but they certainly
don’t “turn the river into a powerful torrent that careens into
Gardiner …” Most river runners who paddle Class V whitewater
“like that found on Black Canyon – know that the river always
rules; the summit lies not at the take-out, but in the flow of the
experience.
Boating flat water in Yellowstone has
never been illegal, which further begs the question of why it is
illegal on whitewater, especially when power boats are allowed to
barrage Yellowstone Lake.
Let’s face it, all this
talk about disturbing wildlife and the problems of managing boating
is just a subterfuge. Yellowstone Park cannot provide convincing
evidence differentiating its circumstances from other national
parks that allow and successfully manage whitewater boating – Grand
Teton National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Great Falls
National Park.
The ban on whitewater boating in
Yellowstone National Park is arbitrary, based upon historic
jurisdiction which never considered boating as merely a means of
recreation.
Davison
Collins
Rock Springs, Wyoming
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Yellowstone ban on boating is arbitrary.
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