The Wave!!!

                                                                             

 

                                                              The "Wave"
                                        


As part of a search and rescue joint training with a county sheriff's SAR team in S. Utah and the Bureau of Land Management Dept. of the Interior (BLM),  the past couple days I had the  extreme privilege to visit one the of the most incredible places on the planet, in N. AZ and S. Utah. 

It's called the "Wave" (pictured above).  It is a wild remote area of stunning sandstone rock formations that straddles the UT, AZ border.   

In the picture you see above, these formation were ancient sand dunes that solidified to rock millions of years ago and have now eroded into these wild formations. 

This area of our county, N. AZ,  and Utah is world famous. And by the way it is on public land that belongs to you as an American.  You will find it on computer screen savers, and thousands of calendars etc.  But unfortunately many people trying to reach this location get lost, injured, die try to get here.  Especially in the 100 plus heat of summer.  That is when we as SAR teams enter the picture. 

The challenge is to preserve the wild spectacular beauty and feeling of the place, at the same time trying to enhance the safety of visitors.  For example we could put up trail signs about every 100 ft, or have a paved path or road, but that destroys the wild remote feel of the place…it is not Disneyland…it is remote wilderness!!!

The terrain here is so complicated and confusing it is easy to get badly lost, and much of the terrain is steep where people can get injured.   All of this makes searches or rescues here very difficult, and demanding and sometimes we have to respond in the dark.  

So our training was with several agencies on  how to better deal with these issues since we  have stewardship of the area and the people from around the world who visit here.  

As part of the training we hiked to the Wave so more of our teams could see the route and surroundings first hand.  Normally to get here you need a permit, but the BLM waived that requirement for our teams on this training.  

This was an incredible experience with overwhelming and unique spectacular beauty.  

And since we are now talking about scenic protections for the 1000, Islands let me suggest what real scenic protections are like...and used pretty effectively to protect the area around the Wave since it has become for popular around the world  as a eco - tourism destination. 

As I said, you need a permit that is very restrictive and hard to get.  You can get it on line and often it is weeks or months to get a permit.  There is also a walk in lottery.  The number of people allowed to go to the Wave is strictly limited per day.  There is no overnight camping, only a day use permit. The rangers try to brief people on the hazards and safety.

There are often back country rangers on patrol.  The ranger we were hiking with turned back at least one hiking party without a permit.  She said this happens a lot. 

Imagine that...she said NO!!!

Our training was also in part to review the area and also see the efforts in place to protect it and how they work and how effective they are.  It was also part of our mission to give suggestions how to enhance the protections and safety of the area. There is no way to actually guarantee anyone's safety in places like this.  There are far to many  objective hazards to overwhelm you...even for the experienced prepared hiker.

Now some people would call that way too restrictive.  But I agree with it. Because that is what it takes to protect this incredible natural scenic resource ... probably the only one like it on the entire planet.  And when getting a permit there is some education of the dangers involved, and that saves lives and helps us. 

Now obviously this kind of scenic protection would be out of place since the 1000 Islands already has private development, and a lot of recreation that has been long established their. 

But when I look at the serious protect efforts at the Wave, I fail to see how we can protect the 1000 Islands by appeasing a system (Art 10) that  takes away our local home rule  rights to actually protect the scenic resources of our region... then write a wind law to appease that system. 

The zoning regulations we have today in CV on wind development to appease the state renewable wind agenda actually allow  huge visually  invasive turbines only 1.25 miles from the scenic 12E Seaway Trail. 

It is a joke!

When you look at what is being done to protect the scenic area not only at the Wave, but for 1000's of sq. miles around it...our CV zoning law  is an embarrassment and a joke dealing with the scenic protection against wind development. The CV govt didn't even in any way want to consider that we should be saying NO to such invasive development.  

 Instead we write a law that allows some!!!!  I still fail to see the logic of how allowing even some  visually invasive monster turbines with huge spinning blades and red flashing lights adds up to scenic protections. 

Glad our CV govt doesn't have any jurisdiction over N. AZ and S. UT.  

So when I talk of the scenic protections of our community and the 1000 Islands region...I am not blowing smoke. Since I am  part of a group that has at least one responsibility for the stewardship of the region in the picture above and the safety of the people who visit there,  I  know first hand how those efforts actually work  and have solid information on which to base my ideas on  to protect our community and region from wind development. 

To date our local communities and environmental groups have basically given the scenic protections of our area over to a system that removed our rights to protect our region in the first place, and actually assists developers like BP with a fast track siting process for development that will destroy the scenic resources of our area. 

It is a JOKE!!!

And the NYS Scenic Area of Statewide Significance, while basically not a bad idea, will do little to stop the developer scheme…and once again we are handing it over to the State for supposed protections. 

Yet the state’s Art 10 makes nothing sacred…not even the Adirondack Park for God’ sake!!!

And this is scenic resource protection?????

We can do a lot better than we have been doing!
 

 
              The incredible scenic beauty of our own region!