andrewsolow wrote:
The Lake Mead National Recreation Area Bolt Choppers are at it again!
Please use either one of the links below to post your opposition to the latest NPS bolt CHOPPING plan. Comments are due on or before March 23, 2014.
Access Fund Comment Tool http://www.accessfund.org/...08267&aid=520695 Park Service Comment Link http://parkplanning.nps.gov/...amp;documentID=57044 then click on "Comment on Document"
My Personal Comments To Whom It May Concern:
Christmas Tree Pass, NV, aka: Bridge Canyon Wilderness, hosts over 90 specific rock climbs, many with fixed anchors, and some that Dick Richardson (RIP: 05/11/1998) and I personally installed between 1977 and 1980, more than 35 years ago. Several of these climbs receive traffic regularly. Yet the area remains pristine with abundant solitude and few group encounters.
The proposed wilderness management plan draft will unnecessarily impose severe restrictions on the long-time, appropriate activity of rock climbing.
The Department of Interior’s practice is well-established regarding the management of climbing and protection of cultural resources. Many land managers post closure information, implement physical barriers to protect specific locations, and close all climbing routes within a 50-foot buffer of a discrete cultural resource site.
National Park Service management policies (DO#41) support continued climbing at Christmas Tree Pass (Bridge Canyon Wilderness), including the use of fixed anchors, and NPS practice is well-established at numerous parks around the country that effectively balance climbing, Wilderness character, and cultural resources.
The Plan’s definition of ‘bolt-intensive face climb’ is inappropriate and should not be used to determine whether the NPS will remove fixed anchors. Management actions must be well-substantiated and based on measurable resource impacts, scientific analysis, and public input.
This would be the first Wilderness plan in the country to propose a systematic reduction of climbing fixed anchors.
Bolt removal on this scale is simply unprecedented and unnecessary.
I would appreciate it if you would STOP trying to destroy the climbing area that Dick Richardson (RIP: 05/11/1998) and I and many others sacrificed tens of thousands of hours to establish over the last 35 years.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...hibition_107144.html Andrew Solow
San Francisco, CA
Cell 415-722-3047
