Immersion Research 2008

Ohiopyle State Park is conducting a public meeting on Saturday, Nov 22, 2008, to gather input and feed back on a proposal, under Bureau of State Parks evaluation, which would provide non-commercial private boating access to Ohiopyle Falls. The meeting is an open house public meeting to review the proposal, ask questions of State Park Staff, and to provide comments.

The Park private boater access proposal will not be available until the meeting.

The open house meeting will be conducted between 1pm to 5pm at the Meadow Run House (former park manager’s residence) across form the Meadow Run Natural Water Slides. You don’t have to be there the entire time.

We are requesting that as many boaters as possible show up at the meeting to show support for private boater access. Please contact Barry Adams via email or 412-242-4562 if you can attend the meeting. We can also help arrange car pooling. We need a strong presence to show our support for private boater access. Stop in between 1pm and 5 pm to participate. Pick up the Park Proposal, ask questions and make a statement in support of private boater access. You can also paddle before or after the meeting to make the trip worth while or just take a hike or ride your bike.

Talking Points:

• If you have run the Falls try to make it personable. Talk about the first time you ran the falls or another time that you did (legal runs only). Please no runs that you got trashed real bad. You can also talk about your friends and their feelings.
• Talk about other water falls in the area or even in the Park.
• If you have not run the falls how you are looking forward to the day that you can run the falls like any other rapid without having to wait for one day a year or having to pay someone to run the falls.
• If the falls were to be open more you would come to the Park more often which would bring more commerce to area.

Those that can not attend the meeting will have the opportunity to request, review, and provide feedback on the access proposal through the end of the 2008 calendar year. The Park will make the full proposal as well as the pilot commercial use license for running clinics available at the park office or by email request as an attachment. The email request will be handled after the meeting by sending a request to the park email account .

We also hope to have the above documents available at by contacting Barry Adams.

Public comments from this meeting will directly contribute to the Bureau of State Parks’ evaluation of the feasibility of this access proposal and help to frame the access issue on Ohiopyle Falls in general.

After the review process the Bureau of Parks will determine if private boaters can have access and in what form?

In addition to attending the meeting we will request that you submit a letter after the meeting in support of private boater access. More details on this after the meeting. We can assist you and various clubs and organizations with sample letters, etc. Please contact Barry Adams if you intend to write a written response. AW will be making a formal response for the paddling community which we can send you and will also be posted on the AW site and Falls Race Site

It is important to note that even though this is a park proposal that could give us access to the falls they can and will reject their own proposal if they feel the community is not in favor of their proposal. In addition, if they feel there are various other reasons not to let private boater access they will reject their proposal. There will be opposition from various sources to any private boater access so we need to make sure there is overwhelming support for private boater access.

American Whitewater has been working on this issue directly with the Park for over fifteen years and we now need boater participation and comments at this public meeting. If the Bureau of Parks rejects this proposal we may not get another chance for private boater access for a long time.

We want to make this clear. The Bureau of Parks can and will reject the Park proposal for almost any reason.

Please check Falls Race Site for updates regarding this matter. There is no question that now until the end of this year will be the most important time for private boater access over the last fifteen years. Please pass this message on to other paddlers.

We need your help and support more than ever.

Ohiopyle Falls Access Committee
American Whitewater
Mark Singleton
Barry Adams
Kevin Colburn
Charlie Walbridge
Barry Tuscano
John Lichter
Matt Muir
Pat Norton
Ken Gfroerer