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Roosevelt Park

 
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ScottRacy



Joined: 10 Jan 2000
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 9:41 am    Post subject: Roosevelt Park Reply with quote

I went to Roosevelt last Friday (7-1Cool to do some late afternoon sailing. I was surprised the parking lot was closed for sailing because of the yearly pow wow which is always held in the location. I was met by my friend John who told me about the event and he also told me I could use the parking lot unload which I preceeded to do. After I unloaded my gear I began to notice many large vehicles driving on the grass. I can remember from previous pow wows where along with trash being left, many sprinkler heads were broken and had to be repaired. I read somewhere that the Army Corp or county was going to monitor this. I saw several park rangers walking around but people conitinued to park on the grass. I guess my question is: is the tribe responsible for clean up and paying for damages ie. broken sprinkler heads?

I have a little ownership with Roosevelt. I began sailing there in the late 80's. I helped plant the popular trees on the west end of the parking lot. Do you remember what it was like before? I helped dig post holes so cars wouldn't race through and drive into the now in-lieu site. and lastly I helped repair those fricking sprinkler heads that used to go on at all times of the day and night and people would stick rocks on them to keep from getting wet.

Sorry to ramble so much it's caffiene induced. I think Roosevelt is the best place to sail in the gorge and I want to help maintain it.
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airboy



Joined: 19 Jul 2008
Posts: 2

PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 1:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

... thank you for all you good work...
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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 6:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The PowWow and its parking lot closure was posted here well in advance in this forum. Usually that keeps us away in droves, but not this year; I was surprised how many WSers showed up. And given that the tribe agreed to keep their vehicles off the lawn this year in exchange for our being banned from the upper and lower parking lots Fri and Sat, I was also surprised -- NOT! -- to see them all over the lawn, as usual, and the parking lots empty except for a few windsurfers. It took the rangers most of Friday to get all the WSers out of the parking lot and most of the cars and trucks off the grass. One family of WSers had come BECAUSE the PowWow was there and their small kids wanted to see it; they bought PowWow raffle tickets and planned to get their water time in before the activities started. They were made to feel so unwelcome that they packed up their camper and left before the wind OR the PowWow started, while there were still 40 empty parking lot spaces.

The Yakama Tribe claims historical ownership of that section of the Columbia shores. Many of its ancestors, including today's tribal leader's Mom, were born and are buried right there in or offshore from the park. Roosevelt is uniquely treasured, and thus threatened from our point of view, by the tribe. If the Corps ever elects to relinquish ownership of it, such as to Klikitat County, the tribe has rights of refusal, which I understand includes the right to take it back. It thus behooves us to remain very cooperative and helpful, like most but not all WSers who were there Friday. The Corps let us load and unload in the parking lot, but one WSer abused the privilege and stayed parked there, adding to the Corps’ headaches.

The Corps has had to deal with many user groups over the years, including sailors, sport and commercial fishermen, Indians, a Veteran’s group, migrant workers, picnickers, boaters, several townships (this group of rangers manages the Columbia’s shores from The Dalles to Umatilla), and the conflicting needs and resources are overwhelming. If we want to continue as major users, we need to behave and help in ways that encourage not only our reputation but also the Corps’ interest in keeping the Roosevelt park.

The previous “head ranger” of this area was not proactive in the park’s management. His objective seemed to be going with the flow at the moment, stroking users but not solving problems. The new Willow Creek Project Office Lead Ranger, Brett Call, is much more organized, involved, and proactive, and appears much more interested in long-term management of his region, particularly Roosevelt. He dealt very well with a bunch of upset WSers Friday, explaining his objectives, problems, and solutions related to us at length without complaining about his far bigger challenge … a tribe which, if given an inch, would take over Roosevelt.

OTOH, the town and the Corps know that without sailors’ help, Roosevelt Park would be all but unusable, as Scott touched on. If not for our volunteer labor, the bathrooms, the grass, the seawall and stairs, the windbreak trees, the sprinkler systems, and the gazebos would not exist and the launch zone would be completely blocked by vegetation, and that’s no exaggeration. We’d have a lot more beachfront if we could get more volunteers to help clear it. Last month’s work party needed at least 30 workers to clear the entire park shoreline of brush. Three showed up to work; the other 50 just WSed and kited.

Back to the Pow Wow … this year’s parking lot closure applied only to WSers/kiters as an experiment demanded by the tribe, in return for their promise to keep their cars and trucks and 18-wheelers (again, no exaggeration) off the grass and sprinklers. We saw how well THAT worked, so next year the Corps may try another plan. This was definitely an experiment. I don’t know how well the bathrooms fared; some years they are vandalized, one year so badly they remained closed for years many years ago until WSers repaired them.

What can we do to help insure continued access?
o Obey rules, including loose dogs, nighttime noise, trash, and nature (e.g., it’s against federal law to turn over a rock or pull a weed at the shoreline without a permit).
o Cooperate fully with the rangers. We already push our behavior WAY past legitimate limits.
o Park smarter and more conscientiously. When we overcrowd onto the road or the desert, it’s ticket time, stretching Corps resources even thinner. Nobody cares when a camper rolls out his awning and carpet and toys and picnic table in an empty parking lot, but doing that when it’s filling up drives others into desperate and sometimes illegal parking.

I also plan to write Brett an e-mail (brett.e.call@usace.army.mil) a) thanking him for trying to manage a huge problem with grief from all sides and b) explaining how precious sailing is to us. He said that we shouldn’t mind giving up one weekend a year to the PowWow, with which I’m sure every one of us agrees ...

UNLESS IT’S WINDY. I don’t think “civilians” understand that every puff of wind, every swell, every jump or trick or reach or drag race we miss is an opportunity we’ll never get back. It’s why many of us spend four or five figures, change or screw up or even abandon jobs or careers, relocate or leave families, lose countless hours of sleep, and beat our bodies into pulps. It’s not just taxes or cancer surgery or promotion to Lt. Col. ... it’s SERIOUS $#!+, and we resent the hell out of being told “not today” just because some group doesn’t want us windsurfing there because their million-dollar in-lieu site 50 feet away isn’t close enough to Momma’s grave. They say we don’t get it, and they’re 100% right; we don’t.

But neither do they.

If any of you want to e-mail Brett, please be very courteous and helpful; he needs ideas, not criticism. He strikes me as a real professional public servant, exemplified by his voluntary stint helping orphanages in Afghanistan at great personal sacrifice. (He did not mention that; I Googled it.)

Mike \m/
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ducks007



Joined: 27 May 2006
Posts: 35

PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 10:14 pm    Post subject: Arlington Reply with quote

As a long term solution, could Arlington be improved to Roosevelt levels?
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dolttl



Joined: 27 Dec 1999
Posts: 2

PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 10:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wah, wah, wah. Your precious Roosevelt wasn't open to sail. Wah, wah, wah, I planted a tree, 15 years ago. Wah, wah, wah.

Deal with it. Nobody gives a crap about your one week of vacation. The people that acually care about Roosevelt are active, IN THE PARK! Get off the forum and get to work.

-s
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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 1:01 am    Post subject: Re: Arlington Reply with quote

Your site is working great tonight, iW.

Last edited by isobars on Mon Jul 21, 2008 1:08 am; edited 1 time in total
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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 1:03 am    Post subject: Re: Arlington Reply with quote

ducks007 wrote:
As a long term solution, could Arlington be improved to Roosevelt levels?


The City of Arlington wants to develop its waterfront into a world class WSing venue, including a lawn, a park, and ultimately an inn where the silo is now. Two problems are stopping it: money and environmental zealots. The former is surmountable bit by bit; the latter probably isn't. The mayor, the Corps, the Indians, the Fisheries, one or two other federal agencies (maybe the EPA), and a CGWA rep ... moi ... met onsite a few years ago to figure out how to improve the launch as a first step.

Arlington owns the island (or peninsula?) they built on which the silo sits, but the Corps owns the water, the Indians have a say in everything, the Fisheries own the fish in the river, the EPA worries about every grain of sand on the planet, etc. They all suggested and debated and agreed on virtually nothing until the WSing guy said, "Let's knock off the corner of the north "cliff" of the island, slope it into the water, put sand on it, and call it a beach." The mayor offered to build a concrete jetty to block the swell from the launch to prevent erosion. Everybody loved the idea, with one caveat: Any fool knows that putting some grains of sand into the Columbia will kill all the salmon, so we cannot put even one handful of sand into the river.

Within days, Arlington made good its promise to cut back the bank, slope it down to the river, put coarse sand on the slope down TO the waterfront boulders, and build the concrete wind barriers on the top rigging area. But, to this day, the actual launch remains a nightmare jumble of slimy boulders in crashing surf because to cover them in sand or concrete would destroy the ecology of the mighty Columbia River.

(I can not, for the life of me, comprehend why so many of you want an even bigger, more intrusive, more overbearing government to do all your thinking for you.)

And, Dolt, where were you at our last dozen work parties?

Mike \m/


Last edited by isobars on Mon Jul 21, 2008 1:08 am; edited 1 time in total
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