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Written by Administrator
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Friday, 06 November 2009 |
After several years of work on behalf on its members and Ontario climbers the OAC has obtained a decision from the Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA ) with respect to re-opening climbing at Rockwood Conservation area.
What happened?
Initially the OAC worked directly with Rockwood Conservation Area staff after the closure of the crag to determine a resolution to no avail. The OAC then escalated the request to the GRCA Board and made a presentation to them in July of this year. The OAC requested that the GRCA and the OAC work together to establish a "Memorandum of Understanding" (MOU) to govern climbing activities at Rockwood Conservation area. The GRCA Board decided from this meeting that they would like more information before issuing a decision and asked the GRCA staff who were familiar with the situation at Rockwood to draft an internal report for the Board. This report can be found here....http://www.grandriver.ca/governance/cw100997.pdf.
While the initial OAC request was for the GRCA to work with the OAC to investigate if there is an agreeable scenario through which climbing can be permitted, the report ignored this request and focused on why the climbing ban should continue. After the OAC read the report we felt obliged to try to deliver a more balanced view for the GRCA Board. As a result, this letter was provided to the Board on October 28th....
Regardless of this letter, the Board chose to follow the advice of the internal report and the motion to keep climbing closed at Rockwood Conservation area was passed by the Board on October 20th, and was then ratified on October 30th, 2009.
But why didn't the GRCA want to work with the OAC?
The internally generated report on which the GRCA Board based there decision is co-authored by staff from Rockwood Conservation area. As the report mentions, not only has climbing continued there despite the temporary ban, but that the climbers have had conflicts with the GRCA interpretive staff. To think that this point would not strongly influence the approach to the remainder of the report would be naive. Full details of the report can be found here .
What now?
The OAC still believes that managing climbing activities, rather than enforcing closures is the solution that will work best for Rockwood. As the GRCA has chosen not to work with the OAC right now, we will be letting the GRCA Board know that the OAC is here should they need guidance in the future.
We as climbers should take this report and the GRCA decision as a way to help us understand how non-climbers understand us. For those of you who respected the ban while the OAC was negotiating with the GCRA, thank you sincerely. For those who continued to climb at Rockwood during the closure, we hope that you will recognize that if the OAC is working with a Land Manager it would be in your own best interest to respect the closure. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 22 December 2009 )
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