May 3, 2006

        Please send me your hiking news, hike and maintenance reports by Monday evening before the newsletter comes out, that is, by Monday evening May 15 to Danny Bernstein danny@hikertohiker.org. Include your email address at the end of your story. Thank you.

What's Happening the Next Two Weeks

 GPS Course - Saturday May 13

Don Walton and Dave Wetmore will be presenting the first in a two-course series on GPS use. The class is designed for beginners who have a GPS or are contemplating buying one. The course will consist of several hours of background knowledge and the GPS theory needed to use a GPS intelligently. This will be followed by a GPS demonstration. The second course (for which this one is a prerequsite) will be a field-based course for those who have GPS units.
The course will be held May 13^th at Diamond Brand, beginning at 9:00 a.m. We should be through by noon or a little later. PREREGISTRATION IS REQUIRED, 10-person limit. Please contact Dave Wetmore or 884-7296 to reserve a place. Preference will be given to those who already have a GPS.

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Other Important News

CMC's first annual Spring Barbecue - on Earthday - was a great success!

The picnic at the Arboreteum was a great success. Thanks to the efforts of Les Love and Sherman Stambaugh, 93 people signed up for hikes, barbecue and a just plain good time. Most of the hiking and maintaining regulars were there. But so were several new faces, including some children. We hope to make this an annual tradition!

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If you want to finish your SB6K, don't delay!

We are working to get a small group together to bag the over-6,000-foot peaks in the Smokies that are hard to reach and require extra effort including overnights. Tom Sanders has very kindly offered to lead this group if we can schedule a trip sometime in late May. If you are interested, contact Becky Smucker at bsmucker@charter.net or 828-298-5013. The size of the group will be limited.

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From Morgan Sommerville, Regional Director for GA, NC, and TN Appalachian Trail Conservancy

If you total the stats for our region, you will find that we had 1,536 volunteers that worked 57,912 hours, or 27.8% and 29.6%, respectively, trailwide.  For the sake of comparison, we have 21.1% of the total A.T. mileage. These figures confirm what I knew intuitively, that we remain the best A.T. region!  Thanks VERY MUCH for the wonderful job you and your A.T. friends do to conserve the Appalachian National Scenic Trail!

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National Park Service Recently Broke Ground for Regional Destination Center at Blue Ridge Parkway Headquarters

Breaking ground from left to right -
Perrt W. Bartch, Jr. (contractor), Patricia Hooks (Southeast Regional Director, NPS), Congressman Charles Taylor, Janice Brumit (Western NC Heritage Area), John Starr (Lord, Aeck, and Sargeant - architect), Phil Francis, superintendent.

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Last Hurricane Related BRP Road Closure Section Has Reopened

The eight mile stretch from US 221at Linville Falls to just north of Spruce Pine opened just before the Easter weekend. There were multiple rockslides along the section that section when September 2004 storms dumped upwards of 20-inches of rain on the region.

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Conservation

For Immediate Release: April 17, 2006
Contact: Chas Offutt (202) 265-7337

SECRET PLAN TO CUT NATIONAL PARK FUNDING BY 30% IN 5 YEARS -
Parks "Glide Path" to Impoverishment Breaks Bush Campaign Pledge

Washington, DC - The Bush administration has directed the National Park Service to substantially decrease its reliance on tax-supported funding, according to internal documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). In a turnabout from the last two presidential campaigns when candidate Bush promised greater funding of parks, new "talking points" distributed last week to all park superintendents urge them to begin "honest and forthright" discussions with the public about smaller budgets, reduced visitor services and increased fees.

Using a new approach called Core Operations Analysis, each park is asked to develop budgets based on a 20 to 30% reduction in appropriation support. In this exercise, park superintendents decide which visitor services or other functions can be jettisoned ("staffing and funding alternatives based on realistic funding projections," in the words of the Park Service). Whatever shortfalls in support for essential operations that remain must be made up for with fee hikes, cost shifting or increased reliance on volunteers.

Once the Core Operation Analysis is finalized, each park is then put on a "glide path" to implement the agreed upon reductions during the next five years.

In the talking points memo issued on April 11, 2006, park public affairs and budgetary staff provide coaching as to how individual parks should spin shrinking budgets and reduced visitor services, including:

"The National Park Service, like most agencies, is tightening its belt as our nation rebuilds from Katrina, continues the war on terrorism and strives to reduce the deficit" and
"Our satisfaction rating is over 96 percent nationally, and has remained high for several years. That's a clear indicator that budgets have not reduced visitor enjoyment."
By contrast, prior to the 2004 election, park officials were ordered to avoid mention of cutbacks and instead use the euphemism "service level adjustments." In talking points distributed on April 7, 2004, park managers were instructed to counter charges of lower budgets by declaring "NPS has fared well under President Bush."

"Rather than being honest about planned budget cuts, the Bush administration once again makes stealth policy decisions cloaked by management reform mumbo jumbo," stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. "If our national parks are going to be reduced to performing only the bare minimum of 'core operations' the public ought to be given some say as to what is considered essential." ###

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Heard on the trail

     Happy Birthday, P.O. Box 68

P.O. Box 68 has been Carolina Mountain Club’s address for as long as anyone (with the possible exception of Bernard Elias) can remember. But I didn’t realize how long until a little while ago when I had to get duplicate key for the box. Since I didn’t have any of the paperwork, the postal clerk went through the records and found CMC’s original application – it was dated April 8, 1946, and signed by Arch Nichols. The postal clerk was as interested in the document as I was. It was yellowed, and the ink (not ball point) used to fill in the blanks was fading. She had never seen one that old.

According to our Club History, CMC, like many other recreational organizations, suspended its operations during World War II. The combination of many members in the armed forces and gasoline rationing made keeping the Club going an impossibility. CMC held its first post-war meeting on March 20, 1946, when Nichols, who had been President before the War, was reelected President. Obviously, the Club felt it needed a permanent address, so we got P.O. Box 68. And that address has been permanent … 60 years and counting. Lenny Bernstein

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