Arkansas Canoe Club Forums

The August issue of the ACC newsletter contained a conservation report article that ended with

"*The ACC does not approve or condone any actions by individuals to change or modify streams."

Can anyone tell me where that is written in the ACC Bylaws or direct me to the minutes of a Board meeting where that statement was adopted as official ACC policy? If it was adopted by the Board, shouldn't that have been something that was put to the entire membership at the one meeting per year at which non-board members can vote? Or should that statement have been mailed to every ACC member for their vote?

Does anybody see a conflict with the quoted statement and the 10-year-old Board approved ACC project to build a concrete and rock dam across the Ouachita River at Rockport, without the endorsement of any conservation organization, to create a surfing wave out of an existing rapid?

Captain Aleve, alias Mike Coogan

Secretary of State Al Haig upon the assination attempt on President Reagan in 1981: "The president has taken a round. I'm in charge."

We all know where the Conservation article author is coming from, but it is clear from past ACC actions that the comment is not ACC policy.
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Cases in point:
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In 1986 the ACC built two rock and plastic sheeting dams across Big Piney Creek at Long Pool in order to create a rapid suitable for the club's slalom competition event.

In 2007 the ACC donated $12,000 to Hot Spring County specifically for the placement of 365 cubic yards of rock into the Ouachita River at the Rockport Ledge and topped it with a concrete sidewalk to the ledge, to enhance play and stop the erosion caused by the next item.

ACC members modified the Rockport Ledge by moving a large boulder into place and anchored it to block the natural flow around the river left side of the ledge.

ACC members placed concrete and rock on top of an existing rock outcrop at the Rockport Ledge to create an eddy on river right of the ender hole.

The ACC has had several official work days at Dierks for the purpose of moving rocks in the Saline River to create recreation for paddlers. The work included cutting out trees, concrete grouting of rocks, drilling and anchoring rocks with steel chains, and guiding trackhoe work.

The ACC has volunteered to help state agencies to remove trees from areas where easy portages were available: Little Maumelle River, Bayou Meto

I'm sure there have been other ACC actions that modified rivers. It is clear by the acceptance of paddlers who come to the rapids created by ACC efforts that they approve of the modifications. No boycotts have been organized in protest.

Clearly the ACC Board and membership have approved of modifying rivers for FUN and SAFETY in the past. I think the author of the quoted statement reached beyond club guidelines, and should publish a "clarification" of that statement in the next newsletter.

Again, we are all for conservation. A balanced approach to conservation and modification has been and should continue to be the ACC's policy.

Captain Aleve, alias Mike Coogan

Is rockport going to have normal Flow this weekend???

Thanks

Wow dude....how about just let it be.

Mike, I have not received my copy yet, but that definitely sounds like an error.
Afterall, what would Chainsaw-R-Us do for entertainment

The changes to Big Piney where removed back to as close to normal as possible immediately after the slolom races in 1986(and I confess I was a big part of modifing the creek at that time). dale

I feel strongly about issues the ACC takes on from time to time, and I've voiced my opinion here and in person at board meetings several times. But I can also accept it when other folks in the club disagree with me and steer the club in a direction I wouldn't have from time to time. Despite not running things exactly the way I would 100% of the time, the ACC does a lot of good stuff out there in the paddling community. There are a lot of great people who are active in the club, even if I disagree with half of them some of the time. Pretty much all of them are trying to do what they think is best for the club and for paddlers.

Guess I won't ever understand how people can stay pissed about something the club is/isn't doing and jump on every chance they get to remind people how pissed they are on the club's message board. Those axes must get pretty heavy despite all the grinding...

I'm just sayin,
Fish

Harshing in the Club newsletter (which is a publicly distributed document) on Club members who don't participate actively on issues is not acceptable. It is counter-productive, not the way to encourage more participation. Indeed, the ACC bylaws state in Article 1, Section 2 that the purpose the ACC exists is for "social and recreational" activities, for recreation, relaxation, companionship, information exchange, and lastly mentioned is preserving the natural state of Arkansas' rivers.

The club has done a great job of promoting its main purposes. This message board is probably the most outstanding example of meeting those goals.

Anyone who has been an ACC member for nearly 30 years should be very familiar with the nature of the membership and doesn't need to suddenly start criticizing it in a public medium. If the newsletter operated with the same principles as this message board, that article might have been pulled for promoting a negative image of the Club. A better approach to encouraging participation on environmental issues would be to make it very easy for members to become involved, say by sending out emails to all club members who could then modify them slightly and forward them to the appropriate governing agency. All the big environmental groups do this. It is easy to imagine 1000 emails going out from our club that has over 1000 members. Any suggestion to improve participation would be better than degrading the membership in public. I found out years ago that the best way to get participation in a cleanup effort was to offer prizes that cost essentially nothing. Presto! No more zero participation Adopt-A-Highway cleanups.

Just sayin'.

And I'm still waiting to hear specifically where the ACC set a policy of approving no individual changes to a river, or a retraction of that statement.

P.S. I love you ALL. Even the ones I disagree vehemently with.

Captain Aleve, alias Mike Coogan

The article in The Arkansas Paddler to which Mike refers focused on Richland Creek which is designated a National Wild & Scenic River. My understanding is that modifications to NW&SR's are prohibited. Therefore I read the statement as saying that the ACC does not approve or condone man-made changes to rivers which have the NW&SR designation.

CAPTAIN ALEVE wrote: I found out years ago that the best way to get participation in a cleanup effort was to offer prizes that cost essentially nothing. Presto! No more zero participation Adopt-A-Highway cleanups.

Sounds like a very good idea. Volunteering for to lead the next river cleanup, Mike? :)

Fish wrote:

CAPTAIN ALEVE wrote: I found out years ago that the best way to get participation in a cleanup effort was to offer prizes that cost essentially nothing. Presto! No more zero participation Adopt-A-Highway cleanups.

Sounds like a very good idea. Volunteering for to lead the next river cleanup, Mike? :)

I think that Mr. Coogan has led many river clean-ups in the past as I recall. Probably a lot more than the average bear, uh, fish, uh, ACC member. Aw hell, you get my drift!

So it's normal flow!

I guess every thread is subject to hijacks.

Yes, its normal flow; noon to 4 PM. Should be really good at the ledge from about 2:45 to 5, and OK until maybe 5:30 (?)

Chester,
The August newsletter has been posted to the "Members Only" section of the website if you want to view it immediately. Or I can email it to you directly so you can read the article.

Since the introduction of the 2, 3 year and Jr memberships getting the newsletter out has become more involved and it has come to my attention that they were overlooked. I'm going to either send a link out to the Newsletter or try send it directly to those members, whichever I can figure out.


Maggie Powell
Membership Chair

Normal Flow? Thanks Harlan! I love your sense of humor.

If I want to get something done or have an agenda, I have found that I'm much more effective if I don't piss on everyone elses post toasties, repeatedly.

Just saying..........................

Been reading a good book lately that makes the case that we often judge others by their actions that we can see, but, that we judge ourselves by our intentions.

Will my comment on this thread make any difference? Probably not. :roll: