[Geysers] Director's order - comment

[sgryc at comcast.net]

To Chris and any others, 

The point of posting my comment was, in large part, to encourage others to post comments as well, so I am delighted that you took the time to send a comment to NPS using my post as some kind of model. My guess is that NPS will go ahead and approve their document, but we should not stop our advocacy for a better policy. Which brings up another topic. 

I think that GOSA should be an advocacy group as well as a study and reporting group. I believe GOSA's "agreement" with NPS concerning the mention of backcountry thermal areas should be reconsidered. My understanding is that GOSA, in contradiction to its stated goal of seeking knowledge about and reported facts about thermal features, will not publish anything about any backcountry features. Indeed, it will not even mention those features. One can report on aspects of backcountry features without violating any of NPS' current bans. One can, for example, find research papers and other on-line sources of information about forbidden areas, because those areas are not forbidden to certain elites (researchers of various types from various institutions, both public and private). What does GOSA get in return for its self-imposed censorship? We, and all other non-elites, get banned from seeing important parts of Yellowstone. GOSA is simply playing into the hands of those misguided individuals in NPS who want to prohibit legitimate use of the park by pretending that those great backcountry thermal areas don't even exist. 

Steve Gryc 

----- Original Message -----

From: "Chris MacIntosh" <cmaci at sbcglobal.net> 
To: geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu 
Sent: Friday, November 18, 2016 7:07:39 PM 
Subject: [Geysers] Director's order - comment 

I took the liberty of using Steve Gryc's comment as a base, with my own edits, in the interest of getting something submitted quickly. I apologize if this was offensive. I'd rather it were taken as " Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness." 

This rule looks like a response to the 'age of litigation' - just ban it all, instead of educating, or allowing visitors to make their own responsible decisions about travel. I guess I was lucky to have wandered around Yellowstone decades ago, when one could visit many of the interesting backcountry sites. Though when I told him I had gone to Rabbit Creek, the USGS researcher Alfred Truesdell's hair stood on end, as he thought of that as a grizzly-attracting dump site! 

Thanks for the helpful discussions. 
>From the 'lurker' who enjoys the group but doesn't get to the park enough. 

Chris MacIntosh 
cmaci at sbcglobal.net 

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