HOW WE SEE IT: Preserve Camping At Albert Pike

It was a horrible event more than two years ago when heavy rain forced the Little Missouri River out of its banks, sweeping away the lives of 20 people at the Albert Pike Recreation Area west of Glenwood.

Eight of them were children. All were people who simply wanted a great outdoor experience in a state providing plenty of options.

Since that terrible night, campgrounds at the recreation area have been closed to overnight camping to give the U.S. Forest Service a chance to regroup and evaluate what might be done to avoid putting lives in danger.

There is a certain danger inherent in anyoutdoor activity in the woods of Arkansas.

But the number of deaths that night shook us all. There no doubt has to be some changes that can protect people.

The Forest Service

has suggested eliminating overnight camping

in the flood-prone areas of the Albert Pike

Recreation Area.

The federal agency should take steps to

move the formal campgrounds to higher places

and take a good, hard look at its system of

evaluating sites at campgrounds across the

country. A critical look at these campsites

years ago could have recognized the dangers

and may have led to modifi cations to protect

life.

It’s important, however, that camping return

to the recreation area. People should be

allowed to do primitive camping wherever

they are prepared to camp, but fi xed campsites

invite people who aren’t necessarily prepared

for the kinds of decisions necessary when

weather turns from bad to worse.

One suggestion is to convert the camp to

day-use only. That’s a start in the interim,

but hardly the solution. Many campers have

gone to the recreation area for years on family

vacations, but it just won’t be the same if at the

end of the day, one has to pack up the car and

head to a hotel.

It would be a shame, in this Natural State,

to see camping eliminated at a site that for

years has been considered a treasure among its

campers.

Laura Simmons, a lifelong resident of nearby

Langley, wonders “just because you have a

10-car pileup and people lose their lives, we

don’t close the interstate.”

That’s true, but if it’s a predictable

recurrence, the government owes it to users to

make corrections to the highway to reduce or

eliminate fatalities.

Likewise, we see room for changes at the

Albert Pike Recreation Area that will preserve

the ability of people from Arkansas and other

states to get out and see what the state has to

offer, including overnight stays a good distance

from the river’s banks.

If Arkansas is to be the Natural State,

government oft cials don’t need to overreact

when something goes wrong. But they do

need to act smartly and with deliberation.

The terrible accident of 2010 created an

opportunity to make the situation better, if

only this federal agency will.

Comments can be submitted to the Ouachita

National Forest, Albert Pike Project, P.O. Box

1270 Hot Springs, AR 71902. They can also be

e-mailed to r8_ouachita_ [email protected].

E-mail should specify “Albert Pike” or “APRA”

in the subject line.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 09/20/2012

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