Dear Reader,

First off, I have some important news to share with you about our efforts to end Rocky Mountain National Park’s unfair, unnecessary, and undemocratic reservation system. We now believe it’s also illegal and in direct violation of the Park’s own guidelines.

I won’t take much of your time. It’s the 4th of July weekend and you may be relaxing and celebrating with your family and friends. But it’s been six months since I last wrote. Three important things have happened since then.

Let me share them with you. And then I’ll let you know where I think we should go from here to finally put  a stop to the Park’s unfair (and possibly illegal) attempts to restrict public access. Let’s start with what’s happened since I last wrote you.

1. RMNP leadership may be in direct violation of Executive Order 12898. In a nutshell, that Executive Order requires the National Park Service to make sure its policies don’t have an ‘adverse’ or ‘disproportionately high’ effect on low income or minority populations.
2. RMNP leadership may be in direct violation of its own rules on the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA). Superintendent Darla Sidles has excluded the Timed Entry system from NEPA review by the use of something called a ‘Categorical Exclusion.’ One person has effectively decided that the rules (and the Executive Order) do not apply.
3. RMNP Leadership is not acting transparently or in good faith with the spirt of its own rules and regulations. The paperwork for the Categorical Exclusion which allowed the Park to impose Timed Entry again this year was begun before we met with Park leadership on Friday, January 7th. Yet no mention of it was made at that meeting. And only last week were we provided with that paperwork.

I don’t want to get bogged down in details. But I do want to let you know we’re seeking legal advice about whether RMNP leadership has broken the law or is not in compliance with the rules set down by the National Park Service for the NEPA Process. If you’re a lawyer, or you know one that you think could help, please email me directly at danield32@gmail.com 

Just two more pieces of information. We recorded the Zoom meeting we had with Superintendent Sidles on January 7th. You can watch it yourself by clicking this link. It’s about an hour long.

In that meeting, we tried to constructively present our case and find a way to work with RMNP’s leadership on a better way to manage its problems (one that doesn't punish the public for the Park's poor management). Little did we know that the decision had already been made. Our input was ignored.

After that meeting I linked up with a group in Moab, Utah that’s been fighting Timed Entry in Arches National Park. NPS is doing the same thing in more than one place and hoping they can divide and conquer public opposition. We’ve since linked up with people in Yosemite as well.

Where to from here?

I’ve filed another Freedom of Information Act request to see all the internal communications about Timed Entry for 2022. I’m also going to ask the Inspector General for the Department of the Interior (who supervises NPS) to launch an investigation into the legality of Timed Entry.

I’m also going to forward all of my correspondence on the matter to the Chairs and Vice Charis of the Congressional Committees that have oversight of NPS and ask them to conduct an investigation as well. If you know anyone in politics or the media who you think could help us, please feel free to share this information. 

I’ll keep you posted. I wish it was better news. But progress has been made. We now know on what authority these decisions were made, and that they may be both illegal and improper. I’ll keep you posted as news warrants.

In the meantime, keep hope alive. It sucks to be in a long fight with a government agency. But we all love the National Parks, especially Rocky. It's worth the effort no matter how long it takes. Thanks for your commitment and Happy Fourth of July!

Dan 

PS I’ve spared you the details about what NPS is required to do under NEPA, how RMNP decided to exclude itself from NEPA using a Categorical Exclusion, and why we believe that is improper and may even be illegal. I’ve raised these concerns methodically, with documentation and specific questions with Park PR Officer Kyle Paterson and Superintendent Darla Sidles. I’ve uploaded my last two letters to them in a Google Doc which you can access at this link (if you don’t have or are unable to use Google Docs but want to read the correspondence, let me know and I can email an MS Word document to you directly.) I've received no direct reply to any of my questions about the legality of the decision or the transparency of the process.

PPS NPS and RMNP have yet to comply with the most recent FOIA request and are well beyond the amount of time they are legally required to do so. In response to my letter of June 7th, however, they finally posted (last Friday) the documentation that shows how the various Timed Entry pilots were excluded from the NEPA process. If you read those documents and my analysis of them, you’ll see exactly why I think not only is the NPA breaking its own rules with this policy, it may (knowingly) be in direct violation of an Executive Order.

PPPS The picture with this update is from Old Fall River Road. It’s open to vehicle traffic for the season as of Friday. My brother Rob snapped this on his phone during the drive up. If you’ve never done the drive (or ridden your bike up to the Alpine Visitor’s center on the road) it’s one of the great experiences in Rocky Mountain National Park!