Monday, November 05, 2007
Golden Gate National Recreation Area churns ever onward unfettered by PWC usage. posted by John Donaldson
The really insidious part of bans by federal resource agencies like the National Parks Service (NPS) is that they are essentially a death sentence for PWC access where ever they are enacted. A horrid example is Golden Gate National Recreation area http://www.nps.gov/goga . GOGA is essentially encompasses all the shore line of San Francisco and the headlands across Golden Gate from San Francisco.
While part of the National Park system, it is designated as a National Recreation Area – unless your form of recreation is a PWC. Precise details such as a good map of the area are a bit hard to find but GOGA has approximately 22 miles of shore line including one excellent launch ramp – and your PWC is expressly and specifically denied access. In fact if you visit the web site you will find that over half the photos of GOGA include view of the ocean where you can’t take your PWC.
Now the horrid example is that for all the alleged reasons PWC were prohibited ten years ago, there is no remedy, no parole, no commutation of the sentence. You are banned FOREVER. There is no modification to the design of the PWC or of the PWC engine that will allow renewed access.
Sure, the IRS still collects your taxes, and congress still appropriates tax funds for upkeep of national parks, just don’t expect them ever to allow you back into this and other parks where you have been banned.
To complete the incredulousness of this individual story is that within 10 miles of GOGA are three of the major oil refineries in California and tankers are constantly cruising in and out of the GOGA waters. There are also major interstate highways that bisect this Park and there are well over 100 miles of San Francisco City streets and county roads within the Recreation Area over which drives every sort of car, truck, bus and motorscooter. But you cannot operate a PWC along a single inch of those 22 miles of coast line.
AWA is currently fighting for access in Biscayne Bay National Park – which incidentally contains a nuclear power plant but no PWC. When we get PWC back in Biscayne, you can rest assured that I will be pushing for action on Golden Gate.
