Re: [dmcoco84] We need to start making a scene about parafoil prohibition in USA national parks
dmcoco84 wrote:
Is it no longer, "we despise this", and simply, "fine, how do we make it work?"
I don't think I've ever spoken to an NPS official who said "we despise this" or even gave me that impression. Heck, even Dan Horner (who had a terrible reputation with jumpers, given that he was the lead law enforcement guy busting us in Yosemite at that point) was pretty reasonable about the whole thing when I talked to him.
We were at "fine, how do we make it work" back in 2008 at the New River. We were actually well past that, to "ok, this is how we make it work."
We just weren't willing to pull the trigger because of the financial risks involved, and the fact that one change in one political appointee (out of half a dozen who needed to give us their blessing) would have killed the whole thing (and left us with a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of valueless land).
Making lots of posts on the internet about how people need to "get busy" is all well and good if you want to feel like you're "doing something". But there are people who have actually done all the legwork in the past, realistically evaluated costs and benefits, and chosen not to move forward.
Mitch is currently doing a lot of leg work. I hope he can make that all work out. But having already been down that road, I'm not really interested in spending a bunch of my time (of which I have _a lot_ less than I did ten or fifteen years ago) chasing this issue. Not after having been involved with four other efforts, three of which were basically sabotaged by jumpers out of personal jealousy, and one of which I chose to discontinue after considering the real costs and benefits to my family.
Tom Aiello
Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com
Snake River BASE Academy