Save Camp Loll, Save the Wilderness

Camp Loll faces a great threat to its program and mission. As a result of a recent lawsuit driven by the Sierra Club, non Profit groups, such as the BSA, are now required to obtain Commercial Use Authorization (CUA) permits. This gives the Concession Management Division of the Park power to dictate the parameters of park use, and in the case of Camp Loll, to destroy all we have worked for, and all the benefits that our back country use brings to the thousands of young people that access Yellowstone through Loll’s program. I cannot overstate the danger.

With NO WARNING or discussion the Concessions Division of Yellowstone has chosen to use the permit process to end Camp Loll’s partnership with Yellowstone National Park. Included among the permit conditions are requirements that will make hikes to Union Falls, Scout Pool, and Terrace Falls impossible for all but a tiny fraction of our campers.

First, it is important to state that Camp Loll has long led the way in adherence to the majority of the parameters set for in the authorization permit. Ten of the twelve points of compliance are either already Loll program elements or could easily be satisfied.

#1. Loll already trains its guides in backcountry guidelines and promotes all park regulations and programs. We go further to explain and practice these conservation procedures.

#2. We have taken responsibility for our campers during their trips into the park for years.

#3. We have sought to protect the quality of other visitors’ experience through training that becomes part of our scouts’ life-long commitment to wilderness ethics.

#4. We have ensured all our campers have proper safety equipment, and clothing.

#5. Our guides and Rangers have been trained in first aid and CPR for years.

#6. We have reported all accidents immediately.

#7 (see below)

#8. (see below)

#9. WE always use established trails, helped to build them and have helped to maintain them for years.

#10. WAG Bags for packing out human waste – we have always followed the parks policies in dealing with sanitation and will gladly follow this NEW requirement.

#11. Ask that we contact Bechler Station with numbers of trips and visitors one to five days prior to our use., and supply monthly and seasonal reports. For years we have kept careful record of these numbers and supplied them to the park. Our hike plan policy will make it easy for us to supply this information to the ranger.

#12. Simply states that any violation of this agreement will result in its termination.

It should be noted that Camp Loll goes far beyond the letter of these laws. They barely scratch the surface of the opportunities in practical application that Loll provides to facilitating the spirit of Yellowstone Park’s purpose of preserving wilderness and natural national treasures by training a generation of supporters of backcountry ethics and practices that are applied throughout the lives of our campers in every wilderness they will ever visit.

Second, to points # 7 and # 8.

#7 States – All day use groups shall be no larger than 15 visitors (one guide and 14 clients) and shall be spaced at least ½ mile apart at all times. This is an arbitrary number. I have no idea where the Concessions Division came up with it. Such caprice demonstrates a total lack of understanding of the nature of our units or the service Camp Loll provides to young people that are America’s most precious resource, and to the Park itself, by guiding them into it.

#8 States – Permittee is allowed to guide one group of 15 to Union Falls, one group of 15 to Ouzel Pool [Scout Pool] and two groups of 15 each to Terrace Falls on any given day. . . This policy shows not only a complete lack of understanding of the processes and services rendered by Loll’s visits to these locations, but is in reality proof that the permit is simply being used as a mechanism to exclude hundreds of trained, well behaved, and low impact users from the back country, not because they do any harm but in order to meet some uninformed agenda. Realize that the group of 15 that goes to Union Falls will also necessarily also be the group that goes to Scout Pool, and that 3 of the hikers will have to be guides and 6 of them adult leaders and you have a hike day which will allow 36 young people to visit these treasures, natural wonders which are as much their birthright as any other user of the backcountry. Realize also that the hundreds who would thus be deprived of the visit would also not receive the desire to protect and the motivation and knowledge to serve these wonders.

These two points, #7 and #8 are clearly aimed at eviscerating Loll’s program as it relates to Yellowstone National Park. This would not only be a disservice to Loll but to Yellowstone and to America, conservation, and our nation’s and our world’s future.

Consider:

1. Camp Loll has made Yellowstone better by our presence. Not only do Loll hikers strictly follow backcountry rules and policies by greatly reducing their impact on the resource, but they clean up the messes left by others.

2. Camp Loll is training generations to love and protect not only Yellowstone but all national parks and wilderness areas. Through the truths they learn on the trail with their staff guide and unit leaders they learn life lessons that will improve backcountry use in Yellowstone and elsewhere forever.

3. We have followed the wise and just direction of the Park Service for years. With the support of the Bechler Ranger, the Park Service, and the Forest Service, Camp Loll has implemented a host of practices to reduce our impact. We have accepted, implemented; indeed helped develop; actions that have actually improved the backcountry. Our guides have prevented lost hikers for years, we have taught thousands to walk softly on the land, to show respect to others on the trail, to value their American heritage and their National Parks.

4. Remember also that the outdoor experience, the wonder of Union Falls, the joy that comes from swimming in Scout Pool changes the hearts of the young people that experience it. Yellowstone thus is granted a role in shaping lives for the better. The greatest experience of many a young life will forever be bound to the values of Scouting and the magic of Yellowstone. Excluding thousands from this opportunity will damage youth, and inestimably diminish the worth of Yellowstone to America and its future.

5. These resources belong to all Americans. All Americas have the right to enjoy them and the duty to protect them. How can young people learn their responsibilities without experiencing their rights. Camp Loll’s hiking programs give Yellowstone the opportunity to fulfill its mandate to preserve and provide America’s great treasure to its greatest resource, it’s youth. Do the rights of those who despise the presence of these boys and girls, by definition – a few selfish exploiters of their own solitude, outweigh the blessing due the many who would thus be deprived of their opportunity to experience and grow from the opportunities these wonderful locations offer?

Call to action:

Camp Loll was promised that if they complied to impact management guidelines, use of the resource would not be curtailed. Now without warning or discussion, with no effort on the part of those who have made this decision to understand how and what Camp Loll does, they have crafted this attack. WE MUST ACT.

HOW, WHEN, WHERE

How: Write letters.

Everyone who can, must write letters or send e-mails to those who can influence this act. I have it on the best authority that if we mobilize we will be able to turn back this policy.

Here are a few suggestions for letters:
1. Loll’s hikes have had a positive effect – on those who take them who are thus made better people, on the wilderness by teaching love for and understanding of the outdoors, on the lives of youth thus steered into positive actions and values.

2. Camp Loll has followed every reasonable requirement and has thus greatly reduced its impact while actually improving the condition of the places we visit

3. The young people guided to these places have a right to enjoy them and only by exercising that right will they accept the responsibilities of wilderness protection that result from such experiences. There are a few who would restrict the wilderness to their own use – excluding in the name of solitude others who seek the same pleasure they crave. Such short sighted selfishness will do great harm to the wilderness, and to those who are deprived of its use. These people are not with Yellowstone park. For years the park service has worked with us to provide the opportunity for thousands of youth and leaders to experience and learn about wilderness protection. We want to support and work with them. The park service is under pressure and we need to let them know that we support them in their efforts to make Yellowstone available to all people, now and in the future.

4. Please be nice to Yellowstone. We are all on the same side. This is just a terrible mistake. If things do not shift there will be plenty of time for anger and further action.

When – We must act at once. If we can flood those who can force the right choice before the way is closed, we can insure these opportunities to generations.

Who: Write to our representatives in congress, to the Yellowstone Park Superintendent, and to Judy M. Jennings, Chief – Concessions Management Division.

Superintendent Suzanne Lewis:
P. O. Box 168
Yellowstone National Park
Wyoming 82190

e-mail Suzanne_Lewis@nps.gov

Judy M. Jennings
Chief, Concessions Management Division
P. O. Box 168
Yellowstone National Park
Wyoming 82190

Below is the Congressional Delegation from Utah. If you are from another state, please write your own congressmen. By using your computer you can access their addresses and all can access e-mail and other communications links to their senators and representatives.

Senator Orrin Hatch:
Washington DC Office
104 Hart Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Tel: (202) 224-5251
Fax: (202) 224-6331

Senator Bob Bennett:
431 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Washington DC 20510-4403

Phone: (202) 224-5444

Representatives Rob Bishop:

Washington office:

123 Cannon Building

Washington, DC 20515

ph: 202-225-0453fax: 202-225-5857

Representative Jim Matheson:

2434 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone - (202) 225-3011 Fax - (202) 225-5638

Representative Jason Chaffetz:
Washington, DC Office
1032 Longworth HOB

Washington, D.C. 20515

Phone: (202) 225-7751Fax: (202) 225-5629

Note: I have a chance to meet with Representative Rob Bishop on February 16th. If he has received hundreds of letters from Loll supporters by then, it will open an opportunity to talk with him from a position of strength.

We Love High Adventure

We Love Yellowstone. . .

So we will defend,

Wednesday High Adventure Day

To the very end!!