Professor Paddle: Park Planning

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   Well, the initial push to get people involved in planning and working towards a whitewater park seems to have started with a bang and quickly died out.

Here are some updates. 

1. We have 15 people in the LinkedIn group to help coordinate professional introductions to key city staff. I hate to say it but 15 is just not enough. I think we need more, and we need more than just people that join, we need people to take lead and get some activity going. So if you have not joined this group, please do. Its not a gimic and its not a worthless idea, it is just another approach to help expose this recreational design to city councils. GET INVOLVED.

2. I am traveling around Colorado right now taking photos of WW parks. My goal is to build a good list of parks and the design concepts of these parks. The goal is that once we have introduced the idea to a city, we need examples of different parks. These example must be already developed and hopefully sucessful. So far I have visited 2 parks and I have another 4 on my route in the next 2 days. So far I have seen parks with Artificial design (ie concrete and man made materials) and parks with natural design (ie features only created by rearranging boulders and pre existing river materials cliff sides, old bridge pilings ect..)

WHY am I making another post?

SIMPLE... I am in a state (CO) that has over 12 parks in current operation and every 50 - 70 miles I pass another one. The only reason we don't have one in WA is that our paddling economy is not recognized by cities. The benefit to economy is not from paddlers either. The hikers, fisherman and many others use these parks... I have photos of it. I even interviewed a fisherman that explained why he prefered to fish in the park during low water. The funniest part was when he looked at me and said... you don't fish do you? I responded, well yes I have but that is not my primary past time. He laughed and said, figures. I then again asked why do you like to fish in parks, to which he replied ... do you think fish like being in shallow gravel beds where birds and other animals wait to feed, or do you think they like deep pools where they can feed and stay hidden by the rivers deeper features.... Not a suprise to me but still it was fun to watch a low water whitewater park filled to the brim with fisherman that were in hog heaven!

I am taking photo's and I plan to start doing video interviews with the next set of fisherman and non paddlers that are using these parks since the response from people I have spoken with has been overwhelming.

Lets get amped people. These parks are good for everyone including the fish and wildlife, and in places like the lower cedar where substantial man made changes have already put the river and wildlife in jeopardy, these parks are huge improvements that bring in benefit for everyone.

To wrap it up .... I sat at the Buena Vista play park and read a sign about the old dam that was in place where the park is now located. The sign showed how the design of the dam and concrete banks destroyed the immediate fish and wildlife population, and once removed this stretch literally bounced right back to life. With these types of examples the argument against a whitewater park is going to be less and less founded!

So go Join that LinkedIn group if your a professional that feels they could lend support to this effort. Join in this conversation if you just want to help or take a lead in making this happen. We need numbers and a well positioned approach.

Until my photo update this evening, Thanks for reading and getting involved!!!!