“The park staff have completed their review of the 318 page document and have provided comments. These remarks have been compiled and submitted to the Denver Service Center planning team,” says Acting Superintendent Black.

Two Rivers: Jacks Fork on left, Current River on right. Jo Schaper photo.

Besides the park staff reviewing the draft, the National Park Service’s Denver Service Center and the Midwest Regional Office in Omaha, Nebraska have also reviewed the draft document and provided their input.

Comments from all enities will be incorporated into the draft which will be sent to the National Park Service leadership in Washington D. C. for their review. Once this review is completed, the draft General Management Plan will be released for public review and comment. Ozark National Scenic Riverways and the planning team anticipate the public release for review and comment to occur Spring 2012.

The park will inform the public when the review and comment period will occur. We encourage and welcome your input on the draft General Management Plan.

With the National Park Service in the final stages of preparing draft alternatives of the General Management Plan for the Ozark National Scenic Riverways for expected release sometime in late winter or early spring, Missouri environmental groups turned up the political heat with petition events and signature turn-ins to federal officials this week.

Five thousand petitions were turned at the Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis on Tuesday, Dec 13, to be forwarded to Park Service Director Jon Jarvis, after spokespeople for 12 environmental groups expressed their views at a press conference held at St. Louis City Hall.

The next day, a similar number of petitions were taken to the offices of Senators Roy Blunt and Claire McCaskill in Columbia, following a news conference at a Columbia sporting goods store. Both petition turn-ins follow a 4000 petition signature drive in Springfield a few weeks ago.

The petitions have been gathered online and at in-person events by members of American Rivers; Audubon Missouri; Environment Missouri; Friends of Ozark Riverways; James River Basin Alliance; Missouri Parks Association; Open Space Council for the St. Louis Region; Ozark Greenways; Ozark Mountain Paddlers; Ozark Wilderness Waterways Club; Sierra Club Missouri Chapter and the Saint Louis Adventure Group.

According to John Hickey, director of Sierra Club Missouri and one of the coalition’s spokesmen, not all the petitions are identical. Signatures come from group members, and the general public, and include signers from Arkansas and Oklahoma.

In 2009, National Park Service (NPS) conducted an official call for comments and held a series of public meetings in eastern Missouri. The public submitted 5117 comments at that time. In February of 2010, an NPS-moderated meeting in Rolla brought together invited stakeholders representing diverse viewpoints on Riverways management. In June 2011, American Rivers declared the Current and Jacks Fork system as on of the country’s most endangered rivers.

According to NPS spokeswoman Faye Walmsley, the service remains on track to issue four alternatives for comment, including a preferred alternative, despite the recent retirement of Superintendent Reed Detring this December.

When contacted about the coalition’s call for tighter protections of the environment and more stringent regulations under a new management plan, Hickey replied:

“A well-managed park is good for the economy in the Ozark Scenic Riverways area. For example, many visitors will come to enjoy a park where the water is clean, but not to a park where the water contains E. coli contamination over the legal limit (which is the current case on the lower Jacks Fork, due to excessive horse traffic). Visitors will come to rent canoes from local liveries, but will not keep coming if they have to share gravel bars with ATVs who access the river from illegal roads (there are dozens of illegal and unauthorized roads that did not exist when the Park was created),” Hickey said.

“Visitors will rent cabins and hotel rooms, buy groceries and meals and gasoline – this also supports the local economy. The reason that the Ozark Scenic Riverways draw lots of visitors is because of their unique beauty, clean water, and solitude. If that is lost, then why would folks make that trip? Why not just go to the Bourbeuse or Big River or Courtois?”

The coalition believes that they are being proactive in protecting the park by their efforts. He continued:

“Environmentalists have been meeting with horse trail operators in the Jacks Fork River area to set up a trail system that allows responsible horse access, but that takes the trails out of the rivers and out of the floodplains. This will allow horseriders to enjoy the park without causing dangerous levels of E. Coli in the River.

“Greg Iffrig and Sierra Club leaders have been meeting with the backcountry horse riders group to identify a horse trail route thru the Roger Pryor Wilderness, adjacent to the Current River.

“Of course, fishermen will support our efforts to eliminate E. Coli contamination in the rivers.

“Our goal is not to limit access, but to make sure that there is access for people who enjoy nature, whether for fishing or canoeing or hiking or riding horses – access to a place to go that is protected and preserved. Who wants to go fishing in the river when there are ATVs going through the river next to you? No fisherperson wants that. Which hunter wants to go back to the old days when there were no wild turkeys or deer to hunt in Missouri? None. Who wants to canoe when you have to dodge the horses that are in the river? Nobody.

“The point of the management plan is to both preserve the park and provide the sort of recreation experience that people want in a national park. That is good for the park, and good for the local economy, and good for the conservationist community,” said Hickey.

Eminence resident John Mark Brewer disagrees with the coalition effort. “Anybody can sign a petition. If you have friends, you can get people to jump on a bandwagon. We have beautiful resources, and we have taken care of them. We took care of them before the Park Service and before the state parks. Probably most of the people who have signed these petitions don’t understand the complexity of the issue. People who live here, and who have lived here for generations do.”

Brewer would like more weight given to the opinions of local residents as the GMP is finalized. “We had 5200 people express their opinions a couple of years ago. Most of those people thought about what they wrote or said, they didn’t just sign a pre-written petition. I don’t necessarily agree with the Park Service, but I want to see what they come up with, not people who aren’t from here.”

Other Riverways area residents have expressed similar views privately to Traveler, as well as several who wish to reserve judgement until alternative GMP drafts are presented to the public. None were willing to comment publicly at this time.

Stay tuned.

By Jo Schaper

From left: Wallis Warren, Ozark Fly Fishers, Lisa Hollenbeck, Alpine Shop, Gordon Philpott, American Rivers, Kally Higgins, Friends of Ozark Riverways

Gordon Philpott, board member for the organization, joined Kally Higgins of the Friends of Ozark Riverways, Wallis Warren, conservation chair for Ozark Fly Fishers, and Lisa Hollenbeck, co-owner of Alpine Shop, a St. Louis paddlesport and outdoor activities outfitter, in making the announcement Tuesday morning.

“We’ve named the Ozark Riverways because of overuse and poor management,” Philpott said. “With over 1.3 million visitors annually, these rivers are being loved to death.”

The rivers joins other rivers nationally deemed under threat from natural gas “fracking,” nearby open pit coal mining, sewage and uranium mining, as well as a special mention attributed to the Mississippi, which the group cites for being victim to antiquated flood control methods when it named the Current and Jacks Fork rivers to its list of nationally endangered rivers for 2011.

The National Park Service is expected to present its preferred draft GMP for public comment in January 2012. The GMP, once approved, will be the master guiding document for the park for the next 20 years.

“We encourage the public to comment on this plan,” Philpott said.

Higgins, who grew up in Van Buren on the lower Current, spoke on behalf of the Friends of Ozark Riverways (FOR). She said,”We’re not here to beat on the national park. The rivers are the lifeblood of the Ozarks. My family was one of the first to settle on the lower Current, and we want to see the park managed as it was intended at the start…we’re asking them to do their job.”

She said, in the 134 miles of the Riverways, there are now 135 ways to drive a vehicle to the rivers. “When the park was formed, access points were 15 to 20 miles apart. Now if you camp on a gravel bar, you don’t know if someone will drive in on you in the middle of the night. That’s a concern.”

Last fall, representatives of FOR met with Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar and the head of National Park Service John Jarvis to express their concerns. A second meeting with Jarvis, Reed Detring, and Russ Runge last October has resulted in no further response from the agency, she said. “They’re moving forward with a GMP based on old data, and we still haven’t heard back from them.”

“We’re asking the National Park Service to bring Ozark to the gold standard of Grand Canyon and Yellowstone Park,” she said.

Lisa Hollenbeck says her store gets paddlesport calls from around the nation and the world looking for information on the Current and Jacks Fork. “People come here to get ready,” she said, “and when they are out there, they buy groceries, gas, and rent canoes. They do breakfast before they go, and lunch or dinner afterwards, so the rivers contribute to the local economy.”

Hollenbeck said, “1.3 million visitors…maybe that is too many. Or maybe not. We don’t think so. We think with proper management it can work. But, if it’s not pristine, it’s not the ideal destination. That’s why we’re here.”

Warren, of Ozark Fly Fishers, says her group uses the stream for recreation and educational activities. “Excessive development has impacted the quality of the water and the experience,” she said. She is particularly concerned about large horse operations near the park, which has 4 official equestrian trails and 23 miles of designated trails, but where many more trails are used by riders. “I love my horses, but the devastation the horses and off-road users cause is not acceptable. I was crying at the destruction wrought by something I love.”

Warren said, “Fly fishing needs wild waters and our club wants a wild experience. We go to other areas to do this, but this is our own back yard, and sometimes that is the hardest to appreciate. Off-road vehicles and horses destroy fisheries habitat. We’d rather reestablish what was once here.”

Although over half the average flow of the rivers comes from springs, it is considered a warm water fishery for most of its length, with only the uppermost section at that near large spring branches cold enough to be considered cold-water.

“We want a safe river, with the quality of water preserved,” said Philpott. “It will take a conglomerate of all of us to achieve this, including local activities. The NPS has received a lot of input from people at this table who are not from Eminence,” he said.

American Rivers advocates for:
- limiting power on motorboats
- some use of the parks by horses, but limiting vehicle access points and large groups of animals.
- considering limiting access on weekends to a restricted number of users.

Higgins said, “Commercial horse riding needs to be regulated. They already regulate the number of craft a local outfitter can put on the river on a day. They know how to manage multi-use and horses in parks. We’re just asking them to do their job.”

The new target schedule is as follows:

• Refine planning alternatives and identify the agency-preferred alternative: April 2011.
• Prepare and publish Draft GMP/EIS: January 2012.
• Gather public input on draft plan: February 2012.
• Prepare and distribute Final GMP/EIS: October 2012.

According to a postcard from Superintendent Reed Detring, some people found the notification a month ago “somewhat confusing, so a reprint was done to clarify.”

After the draft GMP/EIS is completed and distributed another series of public meetings will be held, and other public comment paths provided.

The final NPS report for the Feb. 24-25 stakeholder workshop is now available online on the NPS Planning, Environment and Public Comment (PEPC) website.
To access the PEPC website in order to review the report visit:
www.parkplanning.nps.gov/ozar. On the “Current Projects” menu, select
“General Management Plan, Wilderness Study, Environmental Impact
Statement.” On the next screen, select “Document List” from the menu on
the left. In the “Document List” the report is titled: “Ozark National
Scenic Riverways Stakeholder Workshop Report.”

Pick up a copy of Traveler, then go online and read the official report.

“Without bloodshed,” was one person’s answer to what he wanted to get out of the recent workshop of varied stakeholders to discuss the proposed alternatives in the new Ozark National Scenic Riverways General Management Plan.

That’s according to Doug Warren, Reynolds County Commissioner, who attended as a representative of the Current River Smallmouth Association. Despite fears of various participants who expected a replay of past battles between urban environmentalists and the folks who live in river communities, the discussion turned out to be a good exchange of views, several participants said.

“It was pretty peaceful, actually, and more down the middle of the road when things were all over. It was well organized, and we found more common ground than I expected,” said Warren.

Some 40 stakeholder representatives including power boaters and canoeists, hikers and horsemen, city dwellers and locals with views spanning the entire political, social and economic spectrum were invited to the stakeholders meeting by the National Park Service at the Havener Center in Rolla Feb. 24 and 25.

The Mary Orton Company, Henderson, Nev, provided moderators and facilitators for the small group sessions the first day, and the group discussion held the second.

“On the first day of the workshop, participants were divided into four working groups to discuss two topics: motorboat use and access to the river. Each group had a professional facilitator. These scenarios [were] shared with the entire group on the second day in one large group,” said Park spokesperson Dena Matteson.

“Ms. Orton helped the group consider many of the scenarios and discuss how to eliminate the drawbacks while still retaining many of the benefits associated with the scenario. NPS staff did not participate in any of the discussions, except to answer questions or clarify information, and were merely observers of the workshop activities,” she added.

Superintendent Detring attended and commented later, “”We were extremely pleased with the level of interaction in the group and the amount of enthusiasm shown by everyone. In addition to the comments collected last summer in the open house meetings the thoughts, comments and scenarios presented by the group at this workshop will be very helpful in developing the draft General Management Plan.”

Traveler contacted a representative sample of attendees and asked a few questions of each to gauge the tone of the meeting and see what progress was perceived to have been made by placing people of such diverse views in close proximity. We thank everyone who took the time to talk with us.

Overview
Kally Higgins of the Ozark Riverways Foundation now lives in Kirkwood, but her family has been in Van Buren “since the beginning.”

“Almost everyone there were reasonable people looking for compromise without compromising the resource,” she said. “Some people came into the meeting with preconceived ideas, but left more relaxed and open minded. We realized that everyone loves the river, and even though we might see the details differently, we’re all stewards of the river, and our job is to make sure that the Park Service finds the balance so we can all enjoy it.”

“The people from the city get it, and so does my 80-year old aunt in Van Buren. Everyone wants the resource protected so we all can enjoy it.”
Over and over, regardless of their special interest or viewpoint, most interviewees more or less echoed Higgins’ view.

“One problem that became apparent was that those speaking for local interests tended to be in a state of denial that the problems so obvious to those ofus who have been visiting the Riverways for the past 30 years or so even exist, let alone need to be fixed,” said Michael Sutton of Cave Research Foundation.

“ I do think some progress was made in countering this, and at least some local representatives were prepared to acknowledge that there may indeed be some real problems. On the other side, I have a much better feel for how locals actually use the Riverways and for what their concerns are. On balance [the meeting was] probably worthwhile — a lukewarm endorsement, to be sure.”

Session 1 – Motor boats, horsepower and canoes
Motor boat horsepower versus the desires of canoeists for a wilderness experience is one of the more contentious items which must be ironed out in the new GMP. Numerous people said the meeting dispelled some myths (that canoeists are against power boats per se) and provoked a few novel solutions for how to share the river.

David Martin is general manager for Ernie’s Sales and Service, Ellington, proposed that the current 25 hp limit areas (above Alley Spring on the Jacks Fork and above Round Spring on the Current River) be made canoes only from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and motors be allowed the rest of the year. “I think the horsepower regulations put into effect in 1984 have worked pretty well. But the first day of gigging season — that’s almost like Christmas down here, and it’s an Ozark tradition. But the 40 horsepower limit –if they were to lower that, family boating would be over.

“There isn’t a stretch of river in the state where it is canoes only. It would be a great marketing point for the upper river, and would leave the lower river for power boats year round.”

Not everyone agrees with Martin.

“The meeting was very good, with lots of diverse people. I think everyone learned a lot about how locals use the river,” said Shane Van Steenis of Harvey’s Canoe Rental. “I’ve got a motorboat myself, and I’m against the proposed horsepower limits. I rented a canoe one day to a fellow who brought his family down, and he asked about the motorboats. Well, when he came back in, he had seen how the local people use the river for fishing, or a family barbecue. “I didn’t realize that,” he told me.”

“A little common sense goes a long way when anybody uses the river,” he said. “Motors above Alley or Round Spring are a non-issue, because sometimes it gets so low you can’t even run it in a canoe. But a motorboat is a substantial investment, and local people want to be able to use it when they can.”

John Mark Brewer, president of Voice of the Ozarks, would take the powerboat issue a step further. “The 40 horsepower limit caused people to get jet boats,” he said. A more realistic thing would be to have 65-80 horsepower boats in that zone. It would allow for fewer boats and more people traveling upriver in them. I hope the environmental people realize after this meeting that picking an arbitrary size is not the answer, now that they’ve gotten some more detailed information from motor boat people.”

River Access
Getting to the river, and the effect that access has on the river bank area (called the “riparian corridor”) raised special interest from five groups: the L-A-D Foundation, Voice of the Ozarks, canoe rentals, Friends of Ozark Riverways, a conservationist group based in St. Louis and trail rides.

“I’m glad Park Service called the meeting,” said Greg Iffrig, resource manager for L-A-D, which manages riverfront property and many units adjoining Riverways. “It was a good conversation, and some good ideas came forward. The park needs some help—quite a few park policies from elsewhere have not been applied here.”

“There always has been a feeling that motorized access has flourished here beyond anyone’s vision. Using aerial photos, you can see routes that have been established in the last 40 years. In 134 miles of park, there are over 130 roads. That’s kind of shocking, and that was not the intention for the park. Park Service needs to look at that and reduce the number. We’re concerned what all those roads have done to the riparian corridor, and to the experience of Riverways as a river park—to take back the river experience.”

Brewer disagrees. “Some of the people don’t like trucks and campers on the gravel bars. Reed [Detring] said he would personally drive anyone to a gravesite or an old homestead, but people need to have ready access to those places, especially the elderly, handicapped and very young who can’t hike. Park Service says they want to preserve the local culture. Well, driving to the river is part of the local culture, and they want to critique it instead.”

Matt Bedell of The Landing in Van Buren is worried about one access in particular: Wehmeyer’s Landing, where he puts in a lot of canoes for the float down the Current. “There’s a lot of crowding at Wehmeyer’s – they need a boat ramp there to prevent congestion. There are about six spots…we’re putting in a lot of people there, and if someone has their car or truck and trailer parked wrong, sometimes we can’t get the bus in. We pay 4% of our float revenue for access, and we use that access heavily 8-10 days of the year. We’re fine with sharing the river, but we want to use it, too.”

According to Jerry Sugerman, Friends of the Ozark Riverways (FOR) was founded in part because, “I became alarmed in 2006 when I floated Round Spring to Two Rivers and found ATV tracks and horse divots on every gravel bar. I even saw an oil slick where someone had driven a truck into the river. We need to repair the riparian corridor to natural conditions,” he said.

Sugerman argues that the park has to be treated as any other park under the 1916 Organic (founding) Act for NPS, not as a recreational river, according to research he has done. “User conflicts have been a distraction and caused neglect of the resource –we are looking at horse access and vehicular access as detrimental to the riparian corridor. There can be more horse trails – not more along the riverbank. That, and roads which run along the river are our principal concern.”

“In order to get NPS to do what it is supposed to, our group has set out to document the change and the damage,” he said. “That’s our first goal.”
“I don’t think we adequately discussed issues with horses the way the questions were worded at the meeting,” said Carolyn Dyer of Cross-Country Trail Ride. “Most of the trails we use in our business aren’t in the park. Most people don’t realize that. There are 350-400 miles of trail in the Jack’s Fork and lower Current areas and only about 5% of that is really severely damaged. They overdramatize by showing those places over and over.”

“I don’t have a problem with the way things are. I know the park is concerned with social trails – this is a concern with erosion if you take a horse some places and others follow,” she said.

“I hope we told some people some things they didn’t know, like most of the trails are on private land, or places that aren’t the park. Some people who are concerned about the Riverways are uninformed about what the boundaries actually are. But I don’t think river access for horse or vehicle use was really adequately addressed. The park isn’t against horses, they permit them If there were adequate law enforcement, none of us, motorboat people, horse people, canoe people, would be having this discussion.”

Other issues which recurred across our interviews, though not expressly the subject of the meeting were:

• A general agreement from most that a more visible law enforcement presence in the park and on the river (most wanted uniformed NPS rangers to educate visitors about park rules, deal leniently with minor infractions but severely with major ones (up to banning from the park for up to a year for serious offenses –suggestion courtesy of Tom Bedell of The Landing);
• More boater education for both canoeists and power boaters;
• More education and expectation of common courtesy from and between park visitors;
• The general assumption that 90% of park problems come from less than 5% of the visitors, and most everyone else could share the river amicably under some new GMP;
• The overwhelming opinion that as the draft GMP takes shape the National Park Service has its work cut out for it to draft something acceptable to all.

The Mary Orton Company is finalizing a 78-page meeting report. When complete, this document will be posted at www.parkplanning.nps.gov beside the 5117 other public comments. It will not be used in lieu of them, according to NPS spokesman Matteson.

The park plans further research on select natural resources and park usage before it proposes a preferred alternative in a Draft General Management Plan/Wilderness Study/Environmental Impact Statement. The research may extend through 2011.

Once the draft is issued, it, too, must go for public review and comment before the final alternative is selected by the Midwest Regional Director. That decision is not expected before 2012 at the earliest.

Traveler Outdoor News

“The workshop that is being held on February 24-25 was proposed as a means to build upon and refine the public input that was received during the public comment period in 2009,” said Dena Matteson, park spokeswoman. “It became clear from that input that there were several issues that were somewhat contentious and required additional input.”

During the GMP public comment period, 5117 comments were received, many of them from persons and groups advocating contradictory views. NPS has hired the Mary Orton Company of Henderson, NV to facilitate the meeting. Mary Orton specializes in facilitating and mediating such federal decisions.

Voices of the Ozarks, a citizen action group based in Eminence, is not happy with the stakeholders selected for the meetings as representative of commenter interests

“They have tried to stack the deck with environmentalists and protectionists who don’t want people to enjoy the outdoors,” said John Mark Brewer, president of Voices. “We have the point of view that man has always been a part of nature and we have the right to enjoy nature up close and personally, not as a calendar on a desk,” he said.

Voices, (and Brewer) have been invited to the meeting. After a number of persons and groups complained, he said, three more representatives were included from interests he perceives as friendly to his group. Brewer also said that five more environmental representatives were also added. He declined to name the additions on either side.

“A lot of people say the Park Service is giving the workshop to achieve compromise,” he said, “But we think this is about land control, and one group trying to control another’s ancestral lands.”

Matteson tells a different story. “The information gathered at the workshop will be used,
along with all the public comments received, to assist the NPS with refining the alternatives that will go back out for additional public review. No decisions will be made at the workshop, and the workshop findings will not be given more weight than public comments. The outcomes/discussions from the workshop will be made available for public review just like all other feedback that has been received,” she said.

Brewer is not convinced. “We have done things for many years that these people don’t like, like gigging, hunting or fishing, because it is unfair to wild game. They want to be the only group of people to enjoy the Current and Jacks Fork and they don’t want us to live down here.”

This list of participants has been furnished to Traveler by Brewer. We have requested a follow up after the meeting occurs, from both parties. Stay tuned.
Tom Bedell, park concessioner
Denny Bopp, Wonders of Wildlife
John Mark Brewer, Voice of the Ozarks
Bill Bryan, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, State Parks
Carol Chrisco, Eminence Chamber of Commerce
Floyd Clark, Jacks Fork Watershed Committee
Trisha Crabill, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Mike Cullen, Camp Zoe
Wanda Cumins, Van Buren Chamber of Commerce
Carolyn Dyer, horse trail riders/operators
Susan Flader, Missouri Parks Association
Kally Higgins, non-motorized river use
R. Scott House or Michael Sutton, Cave Research Foundation
Brett Howell, horse trail riders/operators
Greg Iffrig, L-A-D Foundation, Leo A. Drey Pioneer Forest
Angel Kruzen, The Sierra Club
Jeff Lindsey, Van Buren School
Kathleen “Kat” Logan Smith, Missouri Coalition for the Environment
Steve Mahfood, The Nature Conservancy
Dave Martin, motorboat interests
Troy McAfee, hunting interests
Lynn McClure, National Parks and Conservation Association
Phillip Moss, scenic easement holder
Allison Schottenhaml, Missouri Show Me Backcountry Horsemen
Michael Smith, Missouri Department of Conservation
Stacy Smith, Eminence School
Robert Stout, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Water Quality
Jerry Sugerman, Friends of Ozark Riverways
Shane Van Steenis, park concessioners
Ray Walden, Ozark Natural and Cultural Resource Center
Doug Warren, Current River Smallmouth
Laura Watts, U.S.D.A. Forest Service, Mark Twain National Forest.