Should the National Park Service allow a professional bike race to pedal through Zion National Park, up the steep, twisting Zion-Mount Carmel Highway and out the east entrance of the park?/Kurt Repanshek
National Park Service officials are evaluating a request to allow a professional bike race to launch its first stage with a steep climb out of Zion National Park in southwestern Utah.
It's months off, and details haven't been finalized, but organizers of the annual Tour of Utah bicycle race hope to start the week-long race through the park's red-rock canyon.
Professional bike racing and national parks long have been controversial -- years ago Yosemite National Park officials declined a request to run a race through Yosemite Valley, and more recently the Park Service declined a request for a pro bike race to weave through Colorado National Monument -- but the appeal of peletons streaming through the grandeur of a national park keeps race organizers coming back again and again to seek permission.
In the case of the 2016 Tour of Utah, organizers hope to start at Zion Canyon Village just outside the park's Springdale entrance, head through the park and the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel, out of the park, and then north on U.S. 89 to Cedar City.
"We're not quite sure how we're getting [to Cedar] yet," Jenn Andrs, the Tour's executive director, said Thursday when the 2016 tour was announced. "We've worked closely with the national parks in the past, and we do have a good relationship there, so we're hopeful."
The tour has been somewhat controversial with its national park connections in the past. In 2013, the tour's decision to pedal along Utah 12 through Bryce Canyon National Park and Utah 143 through Cedar Breaks National Monument -- drew complaints from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. The group's concern was that if the Park Service stood quietly back when it came to the Tour of Utah simply because the race will follow state-branded highways, would the agency permit a similar bike race down U.S. 191, which passes through a section of Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park, one through Great Smoky Mountains National Park via U.S. 441, aka the Newfound Gap Road, or around Acadia National Park via State Route 3?
At the time, the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks (then known as the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees), sided with PEER and wished out loud that, "it would have been helpful for the National Park Service to work with the race organizers to issue a clear public message regarding the Tour of Utah and why it is being permitted on roads in the two park units."
Intermountain Regional Director Sue Masica said Thursday evening from her Denver office that the Park Service was reviewing the request, but hadn't made a decision for or against the race rolling through Zion.
"What we’ve tried to have is a structured process by which parks go through and evaluate the potential impacts and look at what’s proposed. Each race is different, each park is different, and we try to work through the regulatory and policy framework as to whether those events would be appropriate for the issuance of a special use permit for the event to proceed," she said.
Zion Superintendent Jeff Bradybaugh, in an email, said, "We have been working with them to clarify the planning requirements associated with this event, specifically those involving public safety and traffic management concerns, which require resolution before the process could move forward."
In March 2011, during a public debate over whether the Quiznos Pro Challenge could run a leg through Colorado National Monument, Park Service Director Jon Jarvis said such an event was "neither necessary nor appropriate" for a unit of the National Park System.
“Closing the park to accommodate the needs of a commercial bike race goes against our management policies, would adversely impact park resources, and would deny access to the park to other visitors,” said the director at the time. “Federal law and NPS policy restrict commercial activities in national parks to those that are ‘necessary and appropriate’ to park purposes. This bike race is neither necessary nor appropriate in the park."
Comments
It's very easy for a chronic critic to call others "fools" and claim that there is no reasonable reason to think that anyone's vacation plans might be disrupted by a for-profit professional bike race if they have properly "planned" their vacation.
Is it really reasonable to think that anyone who may be planning to visit Zion or another park six or eight months from now will actually be able to learn ahead of time that the park will be shut down on such and such date? Remember that these people may be traveling from far away -- halfway around the world in many cases. Where is all that essential information to be found?
Apparently, it's quite all right for someone who has "failed to properly plan" their vacation in Colorado to take a detour of hundreds of miles. Really?
I'll bet a hamburger that if our Comrade were to find himself forced to "detour" because he failed to plan properly, there would be some of the loudest and most pathetic howling anyone has heard --- and of course, it would be the fault of those incompetent clowns who scheduled the race when he was planning to be there. They should have called him personally to let him know.
And a few hours? Nonsense. Here, when the Tour of Utah zips through town, streets are barricaded, traffic disrupted, and businesses sometimes just shut down because there's no way for any of us to conduct business. Those shut downs are not simply a few hours. As for the public thinking it is "worthwhile," you should attend a city council meeting following every one of these race disruptions. Other than the bicycle racers and their fans, there is virtually no support among the general public. But money for the few speaks louder than ordinary citizens. These bike races are an excellent example of American Socialism. Socialize expenses for city workers to set up and take down barricades and for police and fire and other public servants to be on duty. Then privatize the profits.
Sheesh!
All of you are missing the point. The whole purpose of this bike race is a human event; the whole purpose of the national parks is to make room for natural events. Where do you draw the line on human events? By the very fact that they are human in the first place.
It is not the responsibility of the national parks to provide an "income" from human events. Certain communities happen to be advantageously situated to profit from natural events, but that is history, not park "policy."
Frankly, I expect this race to be approved. Why? Because the Park Service these days rarely distinguishes between natural and human events. It in fact has come to see manipulating the national parks as a perfectly legtimate process in providing access to natural events.
In Yosemite, roads are plowed long before snowmelt because that is what the locals want. The natural event is to allow the snow to melt and the road to open naturally. The human event is to speed the process and allow the cash to flow.
In Zion, it is all about the locals now. Why has winter visitation soared? Because the population of nearby St. George has soared. There is even a Wal Mart just 25 miles from Zion's gate. After picking up your beer and groceries, you can drop over to the canyon for the afternoon.
Too many people thinking only of themselves are bringing the entire natural world to ruin. Spin it any way you want, but the more we act as if we are "entitled" to something, the clearer the problem gets. Allegedly, that is why the National Park Service exists--to allow the public to say "no." It is the collective answer--or should be--to what becomes self-righteous indignation. How dare you say no to me?
We are not saying no to you. We are saying no to human events. Which is to say, we are saying no to anything disruptive of the natural events the parks are meant to protect.
Why is it not clear? Because the need for discipline is never clear to a civilization in decline.
Excellent comments, Alfred. Unfortunately, you are right on the mark.
Sorry Alfred, I don't see where "human events" must lead to "natural world ruin". Not to say it doesn't happen - and in many cases for the good, but does plowing Yosemite's roads really have a negative impact? Does a Walmart 25 miles from Zion detract or disrupt its appeal?
Yes
Yes, Really. Been happening every year for the last five years.
Please hold the bun but put on extra pickles.
Starts and finishes do have longer disruptions but roads on the the route itself are closed for very short periods of time.
I assure you I do and in our town, the sentiment is overwhelmingly in favor. If it weren't the town wouldn't sponsor it.
The USA Pro Challange has cummulative losses exceeding $20 million since its inception. Once more a baseless accusation.
There are a couple other things to consider here: first of all, this event is counter to the policies of the NPS and it violates 36 CFR, the regulations that govern activities in parls. The relevent sections are quoted below
The Park Service will not permit the staging of of an event in an area that is open to the public, or the closure of an area that is open to the public, when the event
* Is conducted primarily for the material and financial benefit of a for-profit entiity: or
*awards participants an appearance fee or prizes of more than nominal valued; or
*requires in-park advertising or publicity (unless the event is co-sponsored by the Parj Service); or charges an entrance fee.
The bike race fails at least two of these regulations.
"but does plowing Yosemite's roads really have a negative impact? Does a Walmart 25 miles from Zion detract or disrupt its appeal?"
Yes. The plowing becomes an expense, which itself becomes an expectation. How much of that alleged $11.5 billion backlog is due to expectations having nothing to do with natural events? Last I heard, plowing just the Tioga Road costs $100,000 every year. How many seasonal rangers would that hire? What else goes wanting because the road is plowed? It would melt naturally, but in July--at the earliest June even with the current drought. The eastside communities just won't stand for that, and so the park picks up the tab.
As for Wal Mart, it isn't Wal Mart per se, but rather the proximity of these communities to the parks. Now the city fathers and mothers of Utah want to widen the road between Hurricane and Springdale. Two lanes just isn't enough, they say. As much of that pressure comes from the Wal Marts, etc., etc. asking for more customer "traffic," too.
You know how I feel--make it all public transportation. Restore the railroad branch lines and reconnect them with light rail. No stopping until the train gets to the park. No Huckleberry Hound Dog Heaven or Flintstones Rock City to get in the way. No crap to buy; just scenery to enjoy.
Hah! As if that will ever happen again outside our national parks. At least, the inside of our parks should be sacred, which remains the issue here. Nature should call the shots--not events, nor gratuitous asphalt supporting those events. Indeed, while we're on the subject, I would tear out every bench surrounding Old Faithful and make the people stand. The parking lot in front of Old Faithful Inn would also go.
We get used to this stuff and then demand it--if not in our name then in the name of someone "disadvantaged." But he is too old to stand, we say. Nonsense. WE don't want to stand, is the point. People truly disabled are few and far between. It's just that developers know how to get what they want by playing on political correctness.
In Europe, people stand--and ride public transportation. They are thinner, healthier, and less inclined to complain. They aren't perfect, but they know discipline. Compared to two world wars in the twentieth century, standing and walking once in a while ain't so bad.
It's coming here, too, unless we collapse. We just don't "see" it yet. You can't have 450 million people (the population estimate for 2050) and keep on playing the Oregon Trail in your motor home. The Tour de Yellowstone? The Tour de Zion? How about the Tour de Grand Canyon, and they all have to ride out from Phantom Ranch?
Oh well lets just shut the Parks down. Deny access to anyone because lord knows if anyone comes to the park there will be some expense.
I sympathize with your concern of over population and over development. Trains aren't going to fix that nor is preventing a bicycle race to run through a National Park.
For Rick, I understand that the race would violate the "rules". The question is are those rules appropriate and is there some reason that other activities have received an exception and this one shouldn't.