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