Camp Loll and Yellowstone Again
02/08/2010 06:02 a.m.

8 February 2010

P.O. Box 168
Yellowstone National Park
Wyoming 82190

Dear Superintendent Lewis:

I am a veteran educator of over thirty years and a scouter of close to fifty years. With this career combination I have been privileged to spend many of my summers at Camp Loll, a camp located just south of Yellowstone Park. As a result of a lawsuit driven by the Sierra Club, the Boy Scouts are now required to obtain Commercial Use Authorization permits. In crafting our permit, the Concessions Division of Yellowstone has included stipulations that will essentially exclude the scouts of Camp Loll from using the Bechler Corner of the Yellowstone back country.

For over a decade now, Camp Loll has worked very closely with the park and a very amicable Bechler Head Ranger to ensure that scouts who visit the park are properly trained in back country use and are properly supervised. Similarly, Camp Loll has adhered to park standards and regulations and has helped in revegetation, trail maintenance, and any other measure that would prevent or diminish our possible impact on the park.

The future of Yellowstone, of the Park Service, of America, is our youth. Any measure that reduces their park experience, prohibits hands-on learning, not to mention excluding them from wilderness experience is short-sighted and wrong.

As the wise guardian of The Park that you are, I ask that you modify points seven and eight on our permit, to allow Yellowstone National Park and Camp Loll to continue its training of America's youth in both the love of Yellowstone and in the proper use of this national treasure.

Sincerely,

Leonard M. Hawkes


I am currently Frustrated
I am listening to The sound of the wood stove