A bill is expected to be introduced in the Colorado State Senate sometime next week that would radically diminish the ability of Colorado towns to secure water rights for whitewater parks – unless it is amended. The bill is titled SB37, has already made it out of committee, and is sponsored by Senator Isgar. Water-based recreation and tourism, such as rafting and kayaking, contribute significantly to Colorado’s economy and quality of life by bringing additional dollars to communities across Colorado
The National Park Service Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program Needs Your Help Rivers and Trails Coalition Strongly Opposes President’s Plan to Cut $500,000 from RTCA Program in 2007 Budget Proposal. The Rivers and Trails Coalition, of which American Whitewater is a member, not only opposes this proposed cut, but calls for a program budget increase, requesting an appropriation of $10.3 million for RTCA in fiscal year 2007. The RTCA program is a technical assistance program of
American Whitewater is going to be at NPFF this weekend and is hosting a membership drive. In addition to the great entertainment at the film festival Mark Singleton AW’s executive director and Sutton Bacon AW president will be on hand to answer your questions about what AW is working on right now? Once Mark and Sutton enlighten you on what’s happening at AW, Ben VanCamp AW’s outreach director will be there with membership goodies for anyone that joins or renew’s
Calling all Boaters! AW has a new goal for 2006: More clean-ups on whitewater rivers than ever before, with a special focus on rivers near and dear to AW’s river stewardship efforts. To accomplish this goal we are partnering with the National River Cleanup Week® program to offer awesome incentives for participation. We will be publishing the winner of the photo contest in our AW Journal, and will otherwise seek to grant participants fame. For the first time, NRCW program will
FERC staff have scheduled two FERC scoping meetings next week to identify issues, concerns, and opportunities associated with the relicensing of the Jackson Hydroelectric Project on the Sultan River (P-2157). The two meetings are scheduled as follows: Evening Scoping Meeting Date and Time: Monday, February 27, 2006, 7:00 PM (PST) Location: PUD Electric Building Headquarters, 2320 California Street, Everett, Washington (map) Daytime Scoping Meeting Date and Time: Tuesday, February 28, 2006, 10:00 AM (PST) Location: Washington State Department of Ecology,
On February 17th, The Army Corps of Engineers announced its plans for operation of their dam that regulates the Lehigh River, for the 2006 recreation season. The plan includes increasing storage in the reservoir to enhance their ability to provide both base flows and whitewater releases. The plan calls for scheduled recreational releases every other weekend ffrom mid-May through September, with the possiblity of additional releases in October. These enhancements are the result of a long process that lead the ACOE to
The West Virginia Wildwater Association (WVWA) is asking private boaters and paddling clubs using the New River to provide comments on the new General Management Plan (GMP). The GMP will guide development of the New River Gorge National River for the next 15 to 20 years. The park service is requesting public input; non-commerical boaters need to stress the value of activities by private individuals and groups. The initial comment period ends March 15, 2006. Your comments should focus on
Whitewater paddling is often a positive promotion of river conservation. In the case of Twelvemile River, it can also be said that river conservation is a positive promotion of whitewater paddling. In this case of PCB remediation, the restoration solution was to allow a natural flow of sediment down Twelvemile River to bury the PCBs in Lake Hartwell, insulating them from the ecosystem. Three dams in the last two miles of naturally flowing river before the lake have prevented the
On Friday afternoon the Administration proposed the Forest Service’s largest public land sale in decades, listing 309,421 acres up for grabs to the highest bidder in more than 30 states. Over the next few weeks the Forest Service will be preparing maps to show the locations of the property which would become available for private ownership. See the accouncement of the Secure Rural Schools Forest Service FY 2007 Initiative. The proposed land sale is part of the President’s 2007 budget,
Come join Liquid Logic Kayaks and Liquid Adventures for the movie release party of two great new films. View Young Guns Productions latest offering "Dynasty" and John Grace’s much talked about film "Boofing the Iron Curtain." Shane Benedict will be on hand to show some footage of his own and to discuss his two new boats the CR 125 and CR 250. This event will be held at Arlington Cinema ‘n’ Drafthouse Wednesday, Feb. 22nd in Arlington, Va from 6-9 pm.
A Primer on Critical Incident Stress “Stress, a ubiquitous part of life, results from the totality of all that humans experience. The decisions that people make both sharpen and dull stress. Stress is part of what makes people both alive and human.” Dr. Stephen A Pulley, Emergency Room Physician, http://www.emedicine.com A critical incident is a relatively sudden, untimely and unanticipated event outside the range of normal human experience that evokes unusually strong emotional reactions. Extreme stress has long term
In a recent web posting, AW staff stated that we anticipated that Idaho Representative Bob Nonini would be introducing boat registration legislation. Representative Nonini has since contacted American Whitewater and stated that he had absolutely no intention of introducing such legislation, and would not support it if it were to be introduced. We respectfully offer our formal apologies to Representative Nonini, acknowledge that our statement was in error, and appreciate his support of our interests.
The Stop I-3 Coalition continues to make progress in keeping an interstate from being built through our magnificent Southern Appalachian Mountains and the Piedmont, but we need your help to affect further study of this ruinous highway. We are asking each of you on February 14 to send a postcard to J. Richard Capka, Acting Director Federal Highway Administration 400 Seventh Street, SW, Washington, DC 20590. If you can not send a postcard that day, then please send a faxed
The Sumter National Forest announced the data collection techniques they intend to employ in conducting a user capacity analysis on the upper 21 miles of the Chattooga River, on Friday, February 3rd. The plan includes the first legal whitewater boating on the upper reaches of the Chattooga in over 30 years. The SNF’s announcement outlines a broad analysis framework, and members of the SNF staff have noted that they have yet to develop detailed methodologies. They do not yet, for example, know how many paddlers will
At this time, it appears that the unintroduced legislation that would require all boats on Idaho rivers to be registered has been stalled. We feel that no further calls or emails are required at this point, and we’ll be watching to docket to assure that the bill is in fact not going to be brought to committee this week or in the future. Thank you to all the paddlers that called and emailed legislators, and to the legislators that responded. Remain vigilant,
The Stop I-3 Coalition continues to make progress in keeping an interstate from being built through our magnificent Southern Appalachian Mountains and the Piedmont, but we need your help to affect further study of this ruinous highway. We are asking each of you on February 14 to send a postcard to J. Richard Capka, Acting Director Federal Highway Administration 400 Seventh Street, SW, Washington, DC 20590. If you can not send a postcard that day, then please send a faxed
Idaho Proposes Bad Boat Registration Tax (UPDATED) It is anticipated that Idaho State Representative Bob Nonini will be proposing a canoe and kayak registration tax of $6.50 per boat per year sometime this week. Boaters would have to carry a registration paper while on the water, paint a registration number on both sides of their bows, and affix a registration sticker to their boats. In addition, visitors to Idaho would have to pay the tax prior to paddling any
AW Accident Database Whitewater Deaths By State 1975-2005 Alabama 8 Alaska 17 Arizona 9 Arkansas 5 California 79 Colorado 77 Connecticut 5 Delaware 0 DC 0 Florida 0 Georgia 18 Hawaii 0 Idaho 41 Illinois 6 Indiana 6 Iowa 1 Kansas 2 Kentucky 5 Louisiana 0 Maine 10 Maryland 10 Massachusetts 6 Michigan 7 Minnesota 3 Mississippi 0 Missouri 2 Montana 18 Nebraska 0 Nevada 2 New Hampshire 11 New Jersey 12 New Mexico 10 New York 32 North Carolina
American Whitewater Accident Study Covering Non-Motorized Human Powered Craft 1995-1998 By Jennifer L. Plyler, Ph.D. Prologue It’s a bright sunny day. Two friends load an old aluminum canoe and head for the pastoral retreat of a local pond. The fishing poles are along for the ride. The faded orange horse-collar lifejackets will make great backrests as they bask in the sun. In another part of the country, a group of kayakers set a car shuttle. They’ve paddled this Class II-III
WHITEWATER ACCIDENTS THROUGH THE YEARS Reported to American Whitewater 1975-2005 Year Kayak & C-1 Open Canoe Rafts (Com)(Priv)(I-K) Other Total 1975 1 1 1976 0 1977 1 1 1978 2 2 1979 1 1 1980 1 1 1981 1 1 1982 8
The AW Accident Database has just been updated. It contains over 800 incidents occurring during the last 30 years. Accidents can be looked up by year, state, name, or date and are linked to the river where they occurred. The database also contains detailed accounts first published in the 1989-1999 editions of the River Safety Reports. These books, a joint project of American Whitewater and the American Canoe Association, are becoming difficult to find. Improvements to the American Whitewater Accident Database were
The AW Accident Database has just been updated. It contains over 800 incidents that occurred during the last 30 years. Accidents can be looked up by year and are linked to the river where they occurred. These database also features the detailed accounts that were first published in the 1989-1999 editions of the River Safety Reports. These books, a joint project of American Whitewater and the American Canoe Association, are becoming hard to find. Improvements to the American Whitewater Accident Database were
Laura Wittmann was the assistant to Jason Robertson, American Whitewater’s Access Director, from 1998 to 2000. Although whitewater boating fatalities have been getting increased attention in the last couple of years, the actual fatality rate for whitewater kayaking (2.9 in 1998 per 100,000 participants) is not as high as a few highly-publicized deaths would lead you to believe. In comparison with other sports, it is safer than scuba diving (3.5) and mountaineering (3.2). In fact, driving a car is arguably
