MULBERRY ACCESS LOCKOUT MEETING Thursday

[magicmike]

I'm just wondering if we can now expect closed gates everytime they deside its too high? Thanks -M-

[NickHobbs]

August 11 we put on at Little Mulberry, that was the only access open. We had to tell Byrds we had experience before they would let us take out there. I'll be in a canoe tomorrow, to prepare myself for the ban on kayaks.

[George Locke]

That will be a practical choice for you Nick as the new NFS mantra is, "Let every eddy be maggot free". They were passing out bumper stickers at the meeting. I just put mine on my Shaman. It goes well with a purple and gold color scheme.

Jungle Boater

[Cowper]

Depending on conditions, I can see where some access points might be closed to prevent folks from parking where their car might be washed away.

But it sounds like this goes beyond that. It sounds like this makes a second part of our state where we are seeing well-meaning officials attempt to close rivers based on their assessments of river levels, without taking into consideration the skill level of the participants or our right to make our own decision, the same way we all decide whether or not to drive on dark rainy nights, or whether we need to jump off mountains with some aluminum and nylon on our backs or not.

At some point we will all need to address this as a group if this continues. But it is going to be tough to argue in some cases; the folks who should not go out at that level probably will turn around at the closed gate. Many of those who have every skill needed will just drag the boats to the river. Inconvenienced, but not stopped. From the FS perspective this is going to look like exactly what they would like to see happen.

I'm not looking forward to this. I'd much rather be working on something more productive; not fighting just to retain or regain the same level of access that I had for the previous 4 decades with no questions asked.

[GN YAKN]

At the meeting in Ozark there was quite a bit of discussion with the FS personnel present about the gate closings. Here's what I took away from the discussions plus a couple of other observations.

The call came out to close the gates at campgrounds and to evacuate any campers on Saturday when the Mulberry flashed to 14 feet.

The call came from the National Forest Supervisor in Russellville and not from either of the Ranger Districts. They did probably have to execute the order but the order came from a central office. The Mulberry is managed by two different Ranger District offices. One for upstream of Turner Bend and one for downstream.

Mulberry dropped back down to a nice level by Monday and folks couldn't access and were upset. Gates were opened up by around 5:00 pm on Monday.

Not sure why the delay in getting them back open but possibilities discussed were more Flash Flood Watches being in effect through Monday. Not sure about this but it was discussed as a possibility.

This is the first time that I am aware of such an event being an issue for us in many many years on the Mulberry.

I suggested to the FS personnel there that it would be helpful to educate the paddling community on what conditions would generate such an event so that we could plan accordingly. Just a suggestion but it would be helpful. It was received well.

On that Saturday when the Mulberry flashed there was an individual that was spotted putting a raft on the river with two small children. It is my understanding that this was reportedly upstream near Wolf Pen and that it took some time to find the raft and get the people off of the river. The event made the news locally.

It was a scary day on Saturday and I'm aware of two groups of experienced paddlers that were able to use good judgement and scrap plans to boat on the Mulberry that day. The info from the USGS and from the Turner Bend website along with local knowledge helped with the decision. We should have been with the rest of you on Richland!!!

It is unfortunate that the gates didn't get opened up timely on Monday. I truly believe that the FS intentions were good to help protect the bulk of people that don't have the experience and good judgement that users of this board do.

The FS may be a little more proactive in situations like this in the future and I'm sure it is due to the tragedy at Albert Pike. We may be inconvenienced sometimes but I personnally don't feel like it is a sign of lost liberty or that is going to be a frequent event in the future. Maybe we can get some idea of the policy so we can work it into our planning.

Dave

[magicmike]

Thanks for the info. The Mulberry River is near and dear to my heart, so much so that I want my ashes spread there after I die. So anything that affects it is a big deal to me. I just couldn't make it to the meeting.-M-

[Bozman]

The idea of closing "user made" and illegal atv trails is good, and the Big rocks look much better than fences or guard rails, but the real issue is a lack of enforcement in regards to these problems. They tried this same approach on the upper Cossatot river about 4 years ago. The big rocks are still there, and there is a new atv trail around every set of them, where they actually finished placing them. In the bigger problem areas, they ran out of rocks, so they just gave up trying to finish the project. This was your tax dollars and FS timber turnback money at work. I'm guessing that as big as this project sounds, it'll never be completed either.

[Brad Wimberly]

On Sat the 10th the Mulberry crested about 14.5 here at Turner Bend around 1:30 PM. Clearly no one should have been on the river that day. The next morning the river level here at Turner Bend was about 5.4 and falling pretty fast. We were not renting that day but count on experienced boaters getting out on the river on such a day to "check it out and report back" before we resume renting. Without these first hand reports from experienced boaters we would be flying blind the next day when the river drops enough to start renting. The results could be disastrous.

[Canoe_Codger]

...but count on experienced boaters getting out on the river on such a day to "check it out and report back" before we resume renting. Without these first hand reports from experienced boaters we would be flying blind the next day when the river drops enough to start renting. The results could be disastrous.

Last weekend I did an overnighter on the Buffalo River here in Tennessee. I started on a higher section that I had not floated before and really had an enjoyable time. There were a few spots that took a bit of normal river skill to avoid strainers and other obsticles, but really ... other than my desire to not wade and deal with bilge water, none exhibited more than class 1 consequences if mishandled.

On day two, however, I came upon a fresh strainer, a large tree with a lot of branches that had fallen across a shoal, 90% blocking it. Again, using normal skills, I scouted, found a line, ferried and used a series of strokes to go counter the current and around the tree in my loaded 17' poly touring barge. I made it a point to report it to the outfitter because I could envision a pile of plastic tubs and aluminum rentals wedged in that mass of branches. On my return trip this weekend in my composite canoe, I noted that the outfitter had made a visit in his airboat and done some pruning with a chainsaw, eleminating the hazard. I like that kind of symbiotic relationship. It's good for the outfitter, for the renters and for me and others like me. And good for the river. Because of this relationship, they will shuttle me to putins and at levels they won't take their rentals.

[Moniker]

I recently decided to put my hatred of Zuckerbug behind me and start using my long inattactive Farcebook account to keep up with my kids.
I thought since I had gone this far I may as well include friends too.
When I tried to be friends with Brad and crew at Turner Bend I got a message that he had too many friend requests and could'nt take any more.
Cool.
Don Lewis