Petition updatePublic lands for the people, not the privilegedHow to make sure your elected officials are hearing your voice and July 4th and RMNP HQ
Public Lands for the People
Jun 10, 2021

Dear Supporter of Public Lands,

We went over 3,000 signatures on the petition since I last wrote you. Congratulations and thank you. Our momentum is building. You can keep it going by sharing this update as far and wide as possible.

With your help, the petition will be at 5,000 by the fourth of July. And by Labor Day, 10,000. We’re going to make it impossible for officials to ignore the fact that the American public does not want unfair, unnecessary, and undemocratic restrictions on public lands.

The story has received national and international media attention. But we’re not getting through to our elected officials or to the management of Rocky Mountain National Park and the Park service. Today, I’m suggesting three things to help: share your comments with the NPS, contact your elected officials, and prepare for more direct action.

I'll get to what I mean by direct action in a second, But I can’t tell you how important it is that you share your comments directly with Park and elected officials. The stories in the last month show exactly how unpopular, unfair, and democratic restrictions on public land are. The more officials hear from people like you, the harder it is for them to ignore us.

First, leave a comment for Rocky Mountain National Park. When you share your comment, not only with the Superintendent see it, but so will tens of thousands of other people. Second, share it with the National Park Service too. Millions of people follow the NPS on social media. We can reach many of them. Finally, although we haven’t had any luck yet, keep sharing it with local, state, and national officials.

Here are the social media contacts you can use to share your story or comment. I say ‘story’ because if you tried to get into Rocky Mountain National Park recently and couldn’t it, people need to know. This is a bad policy that affects all Americans. Let them know!

For Rocky Mountain National Park and the National Park Service:

For Colorado’s elected officials:

For the Secretary of the Interior, who runs the Department that oversees the National Park Service:

If you’re not from Colorado, feel free to write to your local Congressman or Senators. People from all 50 States and seven countries have signed this petition. Don't be shy about sharing this note and the petition with anyone you think cares about keeping public lands open for the peole.

And if you’re not sure what to say, keep it simple:

Public lands belong to the people. Restrictions on public access are unfair, undemocratic, and unnecessary. Reservations are a form of discrimination. The public shouldn’t be punished with reduced access because of lack of resources or poor management.

Also, there’s some good news. We’ve applied for a permit to exercise our first amendment rights on Sunday, July 4th at the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center. You need a permit if more than 25 people plan to attend. When we receive the Permit, we’ll let you know with the time and details if you'd like to join us.

This is the next phase of our campaign. There are only 39 days left for the public to officially comment on the Park’s long-range plans. The NEPA process it announced in March is full steam ahead. Yet the Park’s leadership has still not complied with our Freedom of Information Act request for further details on how it secured approval to proceed.

In fact, last week the National Park Service acknowledged that it has not replied to our request in a timely manner, as required by law. It invited us to appeal this failure and expedite the information requested. We’ve contacted Rocky Mountain National Park’s leaders twice now, with direct requests to provide the public with information that will make their decision making more transparent and give the public better information.

They’ve ignored us both times. We know they’re busy. And we know things probably move slowly with the Federal government. But the clock is ticking on long-term changes to Park access.

The American people deserve better. They deserve answers. And they deserve to see what local Park officials told higher ups about the reason for wanting these long-term changes now. 

We’ve begun the process of appealing our stalled Freedom of Information Act Request. Maybe the Park’s leaders have nothing to hide and are just  busy implementing their new restrictions. But if you did have something to hide and didn’t want the public to learn it, this is what it would like, not responding in a lawful manner to legitimate requests and appearing to withhold information that might affect public opinion of your plans. 

If we do hear from the Superintendent on these matters, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, we hope you can visit Rocky Mountain National Park whenever possible, even with unreasonable restrictions in place this time of year. The weather is absolutely spectacular right now.

The picture that goes with this update is from Old Fall River Road, just below the Alpine Visitor’s Center. I went there on a bike ride earlier this week. You can see how big the snow banks still are. It’s nine miles up from the beginning of the road at Endo Valley. Unfortunately, the road is closed to all uses (including hiker and bikers) Tuesday through Friday, from 6am to 4:30pm.

But if you can get out on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday before the road opens to one-way traffic (current target date is July 4th) you’ll have an incredible time. Bring lots of food, water, and sunscreen. And look out for big, fat, cute marmots crossing the road. Rocky Mountain National Park is magical. It’s a shame more Americans can’t visit unimpeded, without reservations, as they have in the past.

Regards,

Dan

PS Our original Freedom of Information Act request was filed on April 8th, not longer after Superintendent Sidles announced her intention to impose long-term restrictions on public lands through the NEPA process. We heard nothing from the National Park Service or the Department of the Interior. On Monday, May 17th we asked the Superintendent directly to respond and heard nothing back. On June 1st,  we submitted a new Freedom of Information Act request and asked for it to be expedited so the information could be provided to the public in time to review and give informed consent before the July 19th deadline for public comment.

The National Park Service’s FOIA officer rejected our request the next day. But the officer in charge acknowledged that the NPS had failed to respond in a timely way, as required by law, and that we were free to appeal. We forwarded the note from the NPS FOIA officer RMNP’s public affairs officer and asked if they would make things easier and simply provide the requested materials without a formal request. We received no reply.

Our FOIA request is now with a case officer at the NPS. It was submitted on April 8th. It’s estimated date of completion, which was blank until we submitted our second request on June 1st, is May 6th. It has not yet been ‘assigned’ or ‘processed,’ the next two steps before it can be considered ‘closed.’

At this rate, it seems highly unlikely we’ll get the requested documents before the July 19th NEPA deadline passes. This is the complete opposite of democratic accountability and transparency. And it’s why we need our elected officials to hold the Superintendent accountable. We’ll keep fighting until they do, and until they acknowledge that public lands are for the people, not the privileged.

 

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