Park Service sets new watercraft rules

Posted 6:34AM on Wednesday 17th April 2002 ( 23 years ago )

WASHINGTON - Personal watercraft enthusiasts will have eight areas in the national parks system, including one in Georgia, open to them this summer with park officials banning motorized vessels in more waterways starting next week. Park Service Deputy Director Randy Jones said Tuesday his agency would put five more sites - three national seashores and two national recreation areas - permanently off-limits to the watercraft starting Monday, as a result of a lengthy review and extensive public comments. Another eight areas in the national parks system will be temporarily closed to watercraft also on Monday, but could be reopened if the individual parks adopt rules for their use. A hearing on a watercraft industry suit challenging the ban was scheduled to be heard Wednesday before U.S. District Judge John D. Rainey in Victoria, Texas. The suit alleges the Park Service arbitrarily discriminated against a class of park users: those who enjoy riding personal watercraft. ``The National Park Service has been in a really difficult situation. They have been saddled with a very complex and confusing settlement decree,'' said Monita Fontaine, executive director of the Personal Watercraft Industry Association, a Washington-based trade group. ``There are legal problems with the process by which those decisions have been reached,'' she said. ``There is a possibility that the judge may issue a temporary injunction that would maintain the status quo and prevent the ban from taking effect until there is a hearing on the merits.'' Environmentalists said Tuesday they also worried the Park Service might ease up at three national seashores: Gulf Islands in Mississippi and Florida, Padre Island in Texas, and Cape Lookout in North Carolina. Superintendents in those three areas are being asked to reconsider their recommendations last year that watercraft should be banned. The areas had been on the list for permanent closures Monday. ``While the Park Service is making the right move by implementing the deadlines, we are concerned that several parks will be forced to overturn prior decisions and allow jet ski mayhem into these special places,'' said Kristen Brengel of The Wilderness Society. But Jones said the Park Service's commitment to protecting resources such as endangered sea turtles at Padre Island ``will be a major contributing factor in determining appropriate management'' of seashores, lakeshores and recreation areas for watercraft use. Environmentalists have argued that the high-speed, gas-powered watercraft commonly known as wet bikes, or by their trademarks, such as Jet Ski, Wave Runner or SeaDoo, harm the landscape and wildlife and create risks to public safety. The eight areas remaining open this summer are due to temporarily close on Sept. 15. They were granted extensions to stay open to the watercraft under a court-approved settlement a year ago with Bluewater Network, a San Francisco-based environmental group. The group had sued to ban the watercraft throughout the federal parks system. Sixty-six water bodies overseen by the National Park Service already have been declared off-limits to the watercraft. Still open to personal watercraft this summer are Amistad National Recreation Area, Texas; Curecanti National Recreation Area, Colorado; Chickasaw National Recreation Area, Oklahoma; Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, Montana and Wyoming; Lake Meade National Recreation Area, Nevada and Arizona; Lake Meredith National Recreation Area, Texas; Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Utah and Arizona; and Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area, Washington. The five sites where personal watercraft are scheduled to banned permanently on Monday are Cape Cod National Seashore, Massachusetts; Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, Pennsylvania and New Jersey; Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Indiana; Cumberland Island National Seashore, Georgia; and Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, California. The eight put off-limits temporarily are Assateague Island National Seashore, Maryland and Virginia; Big Thicket National Park, Texas; Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Michigan; Fire Island National Seashore, New York; Gateway National Recreation Area, New York and New Jersey; and Gulf Islands, Padre Island, and Cape Lookout national seashores. The House Resources Committee approved a bill to postpone the prohibition until December 2004, but the Senate has not taken up the legislation.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/4/195915