Louisiana State Parks raises camping fees

    


The first night's camping fee at this unimproved camping site at Fontainebleau S.P will be $20 after July 1.2013 (fee includes $6 reservation fee.)

      Just in time for the July 4th holiday, fees will go up for campers in Louisiana State parks beginning July 1st.  The fee hikes do not include the $6 reservation fee tacked on to the first night's camping fee.  The one-time-per-visit reservation fee is charged for both campsites reserved in advance and for last minute drive-ups.
     Fees as of July 1, 2013.  October-March; unimproved-$14; improved-$18; premium-$20.  April-September; unimproved-$14; improved-$22; premium-$28.  Canoe sites will be $14 year around.
     Fees have increased at the Audubon St. Historic Site.  Entrance to the grounds and the house tour of Oakley is $8  Entrance to the grounds only-$4.  There are discounts for seniors 62 and older and students.
     Fees at Port Hudson State Historic Site are $4 per person.  Seniors 62 and older admitted free.  Discounts for students.
     Both Port Hudson and Audubon sites are in West Feliciana Parish, near St. Francisville. 
     The fee increases were announced in a June 3, 2013 press release from the Department of Recreation, Culture and Tourism.  For more information go to www.LaStateParks.com.

-30-

Sequestration affects Gulf Island National Seashore

Budget cuts at Gulf Islands will mean shorter hours for lifeguards, fewer ranger-led programs, partial closing of visitor centers and reduced grounds and facilities maintenance.

     The five percent cut in the Gulf Islands National Seashore FY 2013 budget imposed by the sequestration, "will be felt by our visitors and surrounding communities," said Dan Brown, superintendent of the park which includes units in Florida, Mississippi and several barrier islands in the Gulf of Mexico.
     Brown said in a press release dated March 15 that while the park will not have to furlough any of the permanent staff to make up for the $359,000 gap in funding, ten fewer seasonal employees will be hired and several vacant permanent position will remain unfilled.
     The staffing cuts will mean, beginning April 7,  visitor centers will close two days a week, some restroom facilities will close and there will be shorter hours for lifeguards, fewer ranger-led programs and less grounds and facilities maintenance, Brown said.
     Also the visitor center at Ft. Massachusetts on West Ship Island will be closed.
     Three restrooms at Ft. Pickens and two at Santa Rosa/ Opal Beach will close.
     Visitors will be asked to take their garbage with them when they leave after visiting the park as trash cans will be eliminated at most locations.  When roads are closed because of storm-driven sand, it may take longer to open them as the park will no longer contract sand removal with outside firms.
     "Gulf Islands is still one of our country's crown jewels and we encourage people to come and enjoy their national park.  Our staff always strives to provide the best possible service and we ask for visitors' understanding as they encounter changes to some park operations," Brown said.
     With over 5 million annual visitors, Gulf Islands is one of the top 10 most frequented national parks in the country, exceeding Yellowstone, Yosemite or the Grand Canyon.

     The regular hours of the visitor center at Davis Bayou, near Ocean Springs, not change (8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.) but the center will close Wednesdays and Thursdays.  For more information contact Gulf Islands at 850-934-2600 (FL) and 228-875-9057 (MS). 

     I spoke with Steve McCoy at Gulf Islands about the removal of the trash cans.  Reducing the number of trash cans has been an ongoing process in the park and he explained that there are very few trash cans left to remove.  Instead of using lots of smaller trash cans, park visitors have been encouraged over the years to use larger and centrally located Dumpsters.  These do not have to be emptied as often and the job is contracted out.  Also, a pack it in/pack it out trash policy has been in effect for several years and that has worked reasonably well, he said.

-30-

Jefferson Parish (LA) takes baby step to include bicycling in transportation plans

     Completing the path along Lake Pontchartrain, developing bicycle routes from the Mississippi River to the lake and teaching police about bicycle laws, were a few of the suggestions offered by a group of about 50 people attending a public forum at the East Bank Regional Library that will eventually lead to the development of a parish-wide Bicycle Master Plan for Jefferson Parish.
     Once developed the plan will serve as an official "blueprint" for making bicycling safer and easier in the sprawling parish.  The plan itself, a product of the Regional Planning Commission (RPC), will not create facilities but will be used to coordinate projects as money comes available, a fact sheet from the meeting said.  The RPC develops plans for a five parish area including Jefferson, Orleans, St. Bernard, Plaquemines, and St. Tammany parishes.
     A second public forum will be held on the West Bank, Wednesday, January 30 at the West Bank Regional Library at 2751 Manhattan Blvd. beginning at 6:30 p.m. to give residents of the West Bank a chance to make suggestions.
     Suggestions from the two meetings will be refined by the urban planning firms working on the project (there are five) into broad concepts that will be discussed at public forums in about a month, said Matthew Rufo, senior planner with GCR Inc. and lead presenter at the meetings.
     For more information, to ask questions, offer suggestions and to receive emails of upcoming meetings go to www.JeffParishBikePlan.org.  You can also participate by following the project on Twitter:@JeffBikePlan or "like" the project Facebook page: facebook.com/JeffParishBikePlan.
     For other RPC projects visit www.norpc.org.

-30-

      
    

    
    
    

Red Creek launch and parking lot planned for Ramsey Springs (MS 15)

    

        

 A boat launch and parking lot is planned for Red Creek at Ramsey Springs (Mississippi Highway 15), said Judy Steckler, director of the Land Trust for the Mississippi Coastal Plain (LTMCP), managers of the 55 acre tract in Stone County MS.  The site is now closed to the public but could reopen with the launch and lot in the spring of 2013.
     Note:  An on-site visit by officials of LTMCP, Stone County and the consultant for the project is planned for March 11, Steckler said today (March 1).  Dates to start and finish the construction of the boat launch and small parking lot have not been set yet.   
    A 30-mile stretch of Red Creek, from highway 26 west of Wiggins to highway 15 has been named a Blueway by the LTMCP.  The group has installed mile posts along the creek.  These help first responders find lost paddlers and people in inner tubes caught by darkness, Steckler said.  The blueway designation carries no additional environmental protections but does promote the stream as a desirable waterway for paddling and other outdoor recreation.  A brochure about the blueway is available from the LTMCP web site. 
     The creek is deserving of the praise.  Despite flowing through only a short stretch of public land--a smidgen of the De Soto National Forest-- the creek flows clean, tea-colored and shallow over a nearly white sand creek bottom and past numerous sandbars.  The land along the banks is settled but houses and camps are generally well back from the creek and screened from view by a ribbon of standing forest 100 feet thick or more.
     Float trips on the docile creek have been promoted in brochures for more than 25 years but use of the scenic creek for paddling trips has been light leading to a number of canoe liveries and shuttle operations to open and close after a season or two.  Red Creek is now mostly visited by intrepid paddlers who have their own boats and are willing to risk leaving a vehicle overnight on a deserted creek bank.
     This may change with a recent increased interest in the creek, Steckler said.  There are two places along the Gulf Coast that now rent canoes to use on Red Creek. They join an existing business based in Hattiesburg that rents canoes and runs shuttles on several south Mississippi Rivers.
     A parking lot and picnic area at City Bridge, upstream from Ramsey Springs, was plagued with rowdy crowds leaving lots of litter right after it opened a few years ago.  But locals pressured the county government to take action and now the area has been cleaned up and is a popular family picnic destination, Steckler said.
     However the growing use of all terrain vehicles (ATVs) on the stream's fragile sandbars and creek bottoms presents a new challenge for stream preservationists, Steckler said.  Google "ATV" and "Red Creek" and there will be several sites with pictures of ATV's gouging tracks in the stream's sand bottoms and banks.
     Steckler said the LTMCP, and similar organizations have enjoyed strong support from landowners along Red Creek who want to see the stream preserved in its natural state for later generations to enjoy but also hear from landowners who fear promoting the creek will increase litter and attract badly behaved users to what is literally their back yard.
     Steckler has big plans for the Ramsey Springs property when improvements to the property are complete.  While still at the brain storming stage, these plans could include a bicycle race or paddling race or foot race or even all three at the same time, she said.

-30- 

    
    
    
    
      
    

    

MS Gulf Coast Trails Touted

     There was a lot of the talk about trails at the 13th annual Coastal Development Strategies Conference, held at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Biloxi, Nov. 7-8.  Here is a little of what was said.
     Two blueways will open soon in the Gulf Islands National Seashore (GINS), the largest national seashore park in the U.S.  This Saturday (Nov. 10) the Davis Bayou Blueway at the national park's Mississippi Unit in Ocean Springs, MS will open.  Beginning at 10 a.m. rangers will lead a paddle, expected to last less than two hours, of one or more of the three short loops that begin and end at the boat launch in the park.  The event is free.  Bring your own kayak or get there early and score one of the few free kayaks that will be there.  For more information call: 228-230-4100. or visit www.nos.gov/guis.
     The following Saturday (Nov. 17) a paddling trail running east about five miles from the canoe launch at the Perdido Key Area will open with a ribbon cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. and a brief paddle.  Bring your own boat; no public boats will be available.  For more info call 850-934-2600 or visit the website.
     (There is a longer discussion of these two trails in a previous posting)
     Sticking with the topic of blueways, Paul Nettles, an experienced kayaker now consulting with the Heritage Trails Partnership, a non-profit promoting trails of all kinds in Mississippi, said the only gap in a long distance kayak trail that runs from the Dismal Swamp in Virgina, around the Florida peninsula to along the Texas coast is along the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.  He suggests modeling a saltwater kayak trail along the coasts of LA, MS and AL after the detailed site and down loadable maps at at www.dep.state.fl.us/gwt/paddling/saltwater.htm the site of the Southeast Coast Saltwater Paddling Trail.  "We are on the edge of something big here," said the former owner of two kayak tour business in the Biloxi area.
     Back on land, GINS superintendent Dan Brown said the roads in the Davis Bayou Unit have become crowded with runners, cyclists and walkers competing for space with car and camper traffic.  The roads are two-lane and have no paved shoulders, or in some cases, no shoulders at all.  Brown said starting next year the park will begin to deal with the problem and work to get "the runners and bicyclists separated from the cars."   Plans will most likely include widening the road with shoulders, he said.
     Fans of the Long Leaf Trace, a 41-mile rails-to-trails conversion from Hattiesburg to Prentiss, MS will be glad to learn that the trail will be extended two miles into Hattiesburg.  James Moore, a founder of the trail said it will take about six to nine months to start construction but that the ten-foot wide trail which will reach the downtown, now home to an emerging restaurant and entertainmment district, should be finished soon after construction begins.
     The Wolf River, north of Long Beach, MS, has been popular with paddlers for decades.  But access to the most scenic part of the river, the 24 miles between Silver Run and Cable Bridge is limited because of almost no public right-of-way access at the bridges and private ownership of most of the rest of the land fronting the stream.  And there is a security issue for parked cars too.  But a member of the Wolf River Conservation Society, said the group is working on developing a public access to the river.  There are no details now but look for something to happen before paddling season next year.  www.WolfRiverConservationSociety.com
     And a shout-out to Jim Foster with whom I shared a delightful lunch between sessions at the conference.  Jim is president of the Heritage Trails Partnership, and dedicated to their main goal of establishing a border to border trail along the Mississippi Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Alabama, about 110 miles.  Some of the talk was just a couple of old geezers gassing about bicycling, a passion we share.  But after our talk it was easy to see Jim's focus is on establishing the Mississippi Coastal Heritage Trail, largely a trail that will appeal to cyclists but with opportunities for walking, paddling and equestrian activities.  Plans for the trail and its progress will be covered in depth here in later postings.

-30-  

          
    

St. Tammany (LA) blueway proposed

     A plan to promote three St. Tammany parish (LA) rivers as blueways--water recreation trails--was presented to the Bayou Haystackers Paddling Club, a group of canoe and kayak enthusiasts from across south Louisiana meeting in Hammond (LA) Wednesday night.
     Part of the plan encourages landowners along portions of three streams--the Bogue Falaya, the Tchefuncte and Abita rivers--to preserve the riparian environment with conservation easements or outright land donations, said Kathleen W. Stites, a landscape architect and acting executive director of the Land Trust for Southeast Louisiana.
     Conservation easements can result in significant tax benefits through reduced income or estate taxes, Stites said.
     BHPC members, many of them in the past having paddled the rivers to be designated water trails, questioned Stites closely about increasing access to the streams and the availability of parking at established launches.  Conflicts between paddlers and speeding motorboats on the wide rivers were discussed.
     Stites said she is seeking grant money for maps and mileposts along the blueway and is hoping for a big turnout by paddlers in support of the blueway when she will make a presentation at a meeting of the Covington City Council.

-30-