ABP WINS! 2006 MANAGEMENT POLICIES RELEASED!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 1, 2006
Press Contact: Gardner Sapp, executive director
gardner@backcountryparachutists.org
PARK SERVICE MOVES TOWARDS FAIR ACCESS FOR PARACHUTISTS AFTER 5-YEAR EFFORT BY ALLIANCE OF BACKCOUNTRY PARACHUTISTS
A parachuting group’s five-year effort to gain fair access to America’s national park system yesterday bore fruit when the National Park Service’s new policy manual included parachuting guidelines stripped of language that prohibited the sport and which formerly declared it to be inappropriate in national parks.
"It’s a big win for backcountry jumpers,” said Alliance of Backcountry Parachutists (ABP) executive director Gardner Sapp. “NPS went from being adversarial to working with us in good faith and the result is that we now have fair access to the planning process so we can soon enjoy the parks the same way as other people who do other forms of non-powered, non-polluting recreation.”
Sapp said NPS opposition to parachuting in the parks started to crumble in 2002 after Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo agreed to champion the cause of the ABP, which was founded the year before by jumper Robin Heid.
“They weren’t too happy about the Congressional scrutiny,” Sapp said, “but at the same time they were happy that there was finally an organization they could talk to that understood NPS management responsibilities and how to work the process to achieve changes that worked for everybody.”
Sapp said negotiations began in earnest after NPS started reworking its 2001 Management Policies, which in its Section 8.2.2.7 had called the activity “BASE jumping” and also said: “This is not an appropriate public use activity within national park areas and is prohibited by 36 CFR 2.17(3).”
“There was an early draft leaked to the public that was even worse,” Sapp said, “because it removed the outright prohibition but attached so many conditions to doing it legally that it remained effectively prohibited. So we started talking to senior NPS officials, explaining to them why the leaked language was unacceptable and offering language that we thought would be better.”
The ABP effort paid off with a first official draft (October 2005) from which all references to parachuting were deleted and the section renamed “Recreational Pack and Saddle Stock Use.” Unfortunately, when the second draft came out (June 2006), Section 8.2.2.7 BASE Jumping was back.
“It was better than the 2001 version and the leaked version,” Sapp said, “but still had the discriminatory language and made assumptions that would have impeded fair access and good faith discussions.”
ABP officers then worked with key NPS policymakers to hammer out the compromise that became the final version.
“They were receptive to what we had to say,” said Sapp, “and the proof is in the document. It’s now called 8.2.2.7 Parachuting, and while it accurately calls parachuting ‘generally prohibited’ by current regulations, it makes clear that if park planning determines jumping to be an appropriate activity, it can be allowed - and makes no judgment about its appropriateness beforehand.”
Sapp said the next step was for the ABP to start working directly with planning officials in park units where jumping would be most likely.
“We’ve already spent two years laying the groundwork with one key park,” Sapp said. “Now that the management policies have been finalized, we’ll expand those efforts to include other parks too.”
For more information, see: www.backcountryparachutists.org
# # #
THE FIVE-YEAR EVOLUTION OF SECTION 8.2.2.7
1. Management Policies 2001:
8.2.2.7: “BASE (Buildings, Antennae, Spans Earth forms) jumping - also known as fixed object jumping - involves an individual wearing a parachute jumping from buildings, antennae, spans (bridges) and earth forms (cliffs). This is not an appropriate public use activity within national park areas and is prohibited by 36 CFR 2.17(3).”
2. Management Policies 2006: leaked draft, August 2005:
8.2.2.7 BASE Jumping
BASE (Buildings, Antennae, Spans, Earth forms) jumping - also known as fixed object jumping - involves an individual wearing a parachute jumping from buildings, antennae, spans (bridges), and earth forms (cliffs). This is not an appropriate public use activity within national park areas, and is prohibited by 36 CFR 2. This public use activity may only be permitted when it has been determined to be consistent with park purposes and to not pose an excessive risk to health and safety of visitors, especially visitors who are not participating in the activity, within national park areas. This activity, if permitted, shall be managed to minimize risks to participants and bystanders, may require a permit and safety certification for each individual participant in the activity, and may have an associated recreation fee, but is otherwise prohibited by 36 CFR 2.17(3).
ABP response: Letter to park superintendents (excerpt), 27 August 2005:
"… there appears in the proposed changes to Management Policies a significant rewrite of Section 8.2.2.7 that eliminates the blanket prohibition but in all other ways proposes to hand off the headaches created by this section from the national headquarters to individual unit managers such as you.
The bottom line: You should actively seek to have Section 8.2.2.7 deleted in its entirety from both the draft and final versions of the new Management Policies manual.
The primary reason why is that the revision gives you the worst of both worlds: It forces you to include backcountry parachuting in your unit planning process - but dictates that you plan according to a management structure that utterly and totally failed when it was tried in 1980 in Yosemite.
3. Management Policies 2006: first official draft, October 2005:
8.2.2.7 was renamed “Recreational Pack and Saddle Stock Use.” All references to parachuting deleted.
4. Management Policies 2006: second official draft, June 2006:
8.2.2.7 BASE Jumping
BASE (Buildings, Antennae, Spans, Earth forms) jumping - also known as fixed object jumping - involves an individual wearing a parachute jumping from buildings, antennae, spans (bridges), and earth forms (cliffs). Generally this is not an appropriate public use activity within national park areas, and is prohibited by 36 CFR 2.17(a)(3), unless determined to be appropriate through a park planning process, in which case a permit will be necessary.
ABP response: Letter to NPS director Fran Mainella: (excerpts), 14 July 2006:
"In all of our letters to you and others we have used the term “institutionalized access discrimination” in making our case for change in the 2006 version of Management Polices, and in our efforts to change the general service-wide attitude toward backcountry parachuting. To be clear, “institutional discrimination” simply means an unconscious, unquestioned and unexamined assumption about someone or some activity. Unexamined assumptions made by the Service about backcountry parachuting still permeate the June 16, 2006, draft. It is the unsupported declaration that, “Generally this is not an appropriate use,” with which we are most concerned, and to which we most object in the current version. Most unfortunately, such an unsupported declaration repeats the very mistake that led to Congressional scrutiny and to Chapter 8.2.2.7’s eventual deletion from the October 19, 2005, draft. This is why the ABP agrees with NPS headquarters and the Intermountain region that the best way for Management Policies to deal with backcountry parachuting is to remain silent on the issue and to let individual superintendents handle it through Sections 8.2.2, 8.2.2.4 and 8.2.3.
At the same time, we understand and respect the Service’s desire to offer policy guidance to its unit superintendents as we all move forward from 26 years of prohibition. We therefore propose the following amendments to the June 16, 2006, draft of the 2006 Management Polices:
8.2.2.7 Backcountry Parachuting
Superintendents of relevant national park areas should include backcountry parachuting in their park planning processes and, if determined to be an appropriate use activity within their respective units, such use activity may be allowed. The superintendent may require permits, designate sites or areas, and establish relevant additional conditions for backcountry parachuting in areas where it is allowed. Backcountry parachuting in violation of established conditions is prohibited by 36 CFR 2.17(a)(3).
5. Management Policies 2006: Final version, August 2006:
8.2.2.7 Parachuting
8.2.2.7 Parachuting (or BASE jumping), whether from an aircraft, structure, or natural feature, is generally prohibited by 36 CFR 2.17(a)(3). However, if determined through a park planning process to be an appropriate activity, it may be allowed pursuant to the terms and conditions of a permit.
| 
