JosephH

Definitely don't make a visual spectacle of any kind out at the Rat Cave - you for sure don't want to be responsible for the Friends of the Gorge or any other kind of officialdom walking up and surveying an already [legally] sketch scene.

Midwesterners, New Yorkers, and the DC crowd on ski trips...

Lower Reptilia, but you'll need to know the secret bump to enter the command center elavator up on LoTLP...

If it were a matter of arguing, 'what we want', or 'what we'd accept' then Beacon would be open today. Unfortunately it's not - it's about realities of laws, stakeholder / inter-agency / regulatory politics, and science - but some folks just can't seem to grasp that idea, or are simply unwilling or unable to deal with it.

You'd be better off picking a tunnel, something that can be referenced before leaving the ground. I agree that would be pretty acceptable to most climbers, but the closure boundaries are entirely consistent with closures around the country and it's pretty hard to make a case for what you want on any basis other than we'd like it. Similarly, the timing and duration of the closure isn't dictated by our wants and needs or what we'd be willing to compromise on, but rather by the reproductive cycle of the Peregrines. Look, I'm not willing to agree on Beacon never being open year-round; but for now I work for early opens, verifiable changes of nesting off the South Face, and to understand the overall, long-term national Peregrine recovery efforts and the role Beacon plays in those. The Peregrines natural range and population is about 3/4 restored to historic levels and Beacon has played an important and successful role in the recovery to-date. In a few years (2015 or so) the population may be declared 'restored' or 'recovered' to their natural range and that would open an avenue for relaxing the closure. But even then the MBTA, WA state, and Audubon are likely to consider the Pergrine as a 'Sensitive' species and Beacon 'critical habitat' still deserving of some form of continuted protection even if scaled back. I won't be around in 2015 so some of you should start getting involved on some remotely objective basis if you ever want at chance of significantly changing things.

You are illiterate, a simpleton, and / or steeped in so many years of senseless fantasy and adolescent denial that logic now completely fails you. Until you wake the fuck up you will remain among the victimal whiners who do nothing but spray.

You have to be careful to clear about what you are talking about. There is the overall park management plan, there are individual project management plans, there is the Peregrine management plan, and there is the climbing management plan. Justin's reference above is above is to the park's overall management plan. The Peregrine management plan isn't approved or run by the BRSP, but rather by the WFDF. Definitely. If you're speaking about me, then that would be entirely inaccurate. Again, I'd be climbing out there today - right now - if I could see a way to do it with either my voice alone or all of ours together. Unfortunately, holding very strong emotions and desires and wanting something to happen isn't enough unless you have some legal basis and framework to hang it on. I want to be free to climb out ther twelve months a year just like each and every one of you - and trust me, "they" know it as well - but without a legal 'hook' (which I can't see or find) the closure isn't going to be changing any time soon. And as a former photojournalist, I don't deal in opinions in such matters - my own, yours, or "theirs" - I deal with facts, realities on paper (laws and regulations), and the politics as I find, learn, or uncover them. As I keep saying, no one is going to be able to just leap to that issue and be taken seriously if they don't understand how the place is managed, what those folks deal with, and how the various stakeholders interact. So if you folks really want to do more than talk and get invovled you should consider starting by: - learning how the overall park, beyond just the rock, is managed and what that involves - understanding the implications of budget, staff, and resource constraints - becoming aware of the politics of and between the various stakeholders involved out there (BRSP, WSP Olympia, WDFW, WDAH, Gorge Commission, FS, BLM, county, railroad, tribes) - Understanding the process of managing climbing in WSP via Climbing Management Plans (CMPs) and Climbing Advisory Committees (CACs) - Realizing we have an outdated CMP that the BRSP gets dinged for every year, but hasn't been able to update due to staffing shortages, but that Erik is committed to completing now that Ben is onboard - Realizing that when the Climbing Advisory Committee gets reconsituted it will have great authority over the future of climbing at Beacon and Beacon locals may or may not have much representation on the CAC because in theory it's supposed to represent all climbing constituencies in WA (I personally don't want Beacon managed from Seattle or by PDX sport climbers). Again, Erik is determined to get the CMP updated and the CAC reconstituted, but between staffing issues and other priorities it has fortunately been put off year after year to-date; that won't be the case indefinitely as Erik gets dinged on it in his and the BRSP's management performance reviews.

Read it, but please don't weep...

In reality it does, by virtue of the fact that WA state authority for that protection flows straight out of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918: Which leads to WA State Raptor Management: And finally that can happen by way of the authority the WA legislature vested in WFDW via:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migratory_Bird_Treaty_Act_of_1918 http://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/webapp?area=home&subject=ecrc&topic=waf-ma http://www.fsa.usda.gov/Internet/FSA_File/eo13186.pdf http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_01/50cfr21_01.html http://apps.leg.wa.gov/WAC/default.aspx?cite=232-12

No, the law on the matter is clear enough that no environmental lawyer I know of would risk their reputation and career trying to counter it even if it didn't run counter to their personal ethics. You could check with Bryan (Crimper), he is an environemental lawyer for DEQ, but I suspect you'd get the same answer from him...

You're welcome...

True, they mostly shoot themselves or each other in hunting accidents, domestic disputes, and murder-suicides. Odds are you'll probably be safer in a National Park than your kid's school.

"What is observed" is the entire basis of opening Beacon's South Face to climbing. Other than a wifi/cell-based camera system above the scrape which is being explored, there is little else to be done. You / we can propose all we like, but the closure is solidly rooted in state and federal law and at this time there is zero legal basis to challenge that so our proposals won't be "deemed valid". Again, the only basis for any form of opening the South Face is working with WFDW on the monitoring. I do have both political and [para-]legal experience in this sort of thing and trust me, in this sixth year of doing this shit, if there was any legal or scientific basis for lifting the closure I would be climbing at Beacon right now.

Early opens is what's gained from this or I wouldn't be doing it for the sixth year running. We've had early opens in four of the five past years because of it. Dave Anderson does a monthly report on the Peregrine status this time of year and does very much care what we report, though you are correct that all decision making is up to Dave you WDFW guys. Correct, there is no "research" or "study" going on; the monitoring protocol is dictated by the WDFW's Peregrine Management Plan. Dave Anderson is actively engaged in making sure Beacon both gets monitored to those requirements and in establishing / documenting that nesting, hatching, and fledging take place at Beacon as well as where and when. Again, that's the basis for pinning down an opening date. Dave is real busy, but again is very much engaged at Beacon even though it's just one of many responsibilities, monitoring sites, and projects he has going on in any month across a number of species. Here's his response from sending this first monitoring report: Entirely correct there.

Sounds like someone I would like to have climbed with had he had stayed with us. Ditto with Vern Stiefel who was one of the best climbers I've met in recent years. And of course it goes without saying I would liked to have gotten in more climbs with Jim Anglin. Everyone has their time, sometimes we're lucky enough to get some of them while they're here, sometimes we're not. C'est la vie...

I didn't. I got there about 4pm... I'm just up nights working sometimes and post early in the morning...

Justin, Yes, so it doesn't become like this thread. I monitor as often as I can and post up a link, but I'm pretty slammed at work. Will probably get out a couple of times a month and hopefully Dave and Kenny can do the same. They're just starting to monitor though and it isn't particularly an easy deal. There is a lot to learn and discriminating the falcons from other birds in flight takes time. Now is a good time for them to start learning as there aren't a lot of other birds out this early to confuse them with. That will be changing pretty soon though. So, I'll be posting the log entries this years while those guys are learning as the entries all need to be in a relatively consistent form to send to WDFW to be useful to them for their monthly reporting.

Didn't even know the meeting was in town - interesting, thanks. http://www.agu.org/meetings/os10/index.php http://www.agu.org/meetings/os10/lectures/index.php http://www.agu.org/meetings/os10/pdf/AGU_OS10_Scientific_Program.pdf

I knew of loads of folks in LA who were into $1mil+ interest-only loans for houses that would go for $275k-325k max in PDX - ouch!

As per Pink's request, Peregrine monitoring journal entries can be found posted here...

Two or three years ago in Eldo a guy leading pulled a [known] loose microwave-size block off a route leading over it after commenting it was loose to his belayer. His belayer didn't get up from sitting cross-legged or move his belay. The block trashed the leader in the very same manner as described in the accident above and then the block fell in his belayer's lap. Both ended up in very bad shape, lucky to end up alive at all.

Zeus himself picked it for a starring global role, not a simple North American one. What do you think lights El Cap up at night? Beacon does of course...

Never sit when belaying. I know of several career-ending rock fall injuries to sitting belayers.

What, no Masters class award? But hell, I'd give Bill an "Olden Piton" any day. And it's not about how you use it, it's whether you use it at all anymore.