Re: [Paddlewise] Kayak Registration

On Wed, Mar 23, 2005 at 07:26:23AM -0600, James wrote:
> But the bill passed and now we register.  And now the Department of
> Natural Resources listens when we talk and builds us canoe launches when
> we make a good case.

But do they (for example) defend your right to paddle any navigable
stream, by taking aggressive legal action against anyone who tries
to prevent that?  Do they pursue polluters?  Do they work out release
schedules (where applicable) to minimize environmental impact and maximize
recreational availability?  Do they fight developers -- the carpetbagging
greedpigs who turn farmland and forest into McMansions and sources of
contaminated runoff?  Do they work with the paddling community on safety
issues and have they acquired at least a basic understanding of what
regulations make sense and which don't?  Do they aggressively prosecute
jet-skiers who harrass and threaten paddlers?

And so on.

In PA, none of these things have happened.  Oh, there are some DNR staff
here and there who Get It.  They're fine people.  Some of them have really
made outstanding efforts and should be (and have been) congratulated for it,
because they *have*, in isolated instances, done some of these things.

But the PA DNR as a whole *clearly* believes that its priorities vis-a-vis
recreational water use are power-boaters, with fisherman as a second,
and paddlers non-entities.  And so its policies and procedures are heavily,
almost completely, biased that way.

And so we have problems.  The DNR has failed to protect Brandywine Creek
(a precious, beautiful resource of both natural and historic significance)
and has thus permitted it to become increasingly fouled by runoff from
encroaching development.  The DNR has failed to prosecute aggressive
jet-skiers and so now some stretches of the lower Delaware River are
rather dangerous to paddle on summer weekends.  The Lehigh has been
closed off at high flows -- flows which certainly make the river
inappropriate for novices, but which leave it well within an acceptable
safety margin for a group of strong intermediate or advanced paddlers.
There's only 4 days of scheduled water _a year_ on the Tohickon, a prime
class III+ creek within an hour of a major population center (Philadelphia).

And so on.

Putting aside that the DNR is *already* being funded by paddlers, just
as they're being funded by every other citizen of the state via their
tax dollars, and thus has an obligation to provide services in return,
I wouldn't object quite so strenuously to the notion of fees if I had
seen, at any time during the last 15 years, some indication that those
paying the fees would get _anything_ tangible in return. 

But they don't.

Maybe it's different elsewhere (and that'd be a good thing).  But at least
in PA, it's "give us your money, now shut up and go away".

---Rsk
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