Dear Texas Rock Climber,
A schism has formed within the organization of
Texas rock climbers of the Central Texas Climbing Committee (CTCC) which
I wish to bring to your attention, and ask thatyou bring to the attention
of all Texas rock climbers. I seek your support in holding your elected members
to the task of acting in the interests of climbers, rather than theinterests
of general tourism at Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. It is my belief
that we were elected to act in the best interest of our rock climbers, but
many of theCTCC members have a different interpretation which seems conflicting.
I ask that you publish this open letter to Texas
climbers both on your websites, and in your newsletters in an effort to make
them informed of the issues at stake, and in aneffort to seek public guidance
in this matter. It is my hope that the publication of this information will
spark a response from the climbing community which will provide the
CTCC with clear guidance for how you want to be represented.
Yours,
Larry Kruse - CTCC Secretary
Several years ago, my friend
James Crump, convinced me to take a more active role in the protection of
our
privilege to rock climb at Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. He discussed
with me the benefits of running for
election to the Central Texas Climbing Committee and working towards the
preservation of rock climbing. It was at a time when we knew that the stewardship
of Enchanted Rock would be changing from a strong friend of climbers in Sonny
Solis to a new, unknown park superintendent. Hueco Tanks had seen an increasing
amount of restrictions and all of us were concerned that this might become
a trend on the part of Texas Parks and Wildlife towards the sport of climbing
in general. And so I decided to run for election to the CTCC and was subsequently
elected to my first term.
The new park superintendent,
Rob Trippett has turned out to be a friend of climbers too, and has brought
many new ideas forth for improving the operations of Enchanted Rock. One
of the cornerstones of Mr. Trippett's ideas has been the formation of an
organization called the Friends of Enchanted Rock which is intended to provide
a way that funds could raised specifically for Enchanted Rock SNA and used
by the park management to make improvements for all park visitors. Mr. Trippett
saw that the majority of civilian involvement and volunteer activity in the
park came from the climbing community led by the CTCC and therefore assembled
a committee composed of 4 members of the CTCC and himself.
For the last four years,
the CTCC has led an extensive effort to rebuild, repair, and "harden"
trails used by
climbers in an effort to preserve our access to climbing at Enchanted Rock.
We have repaired some general use trails in Echo Canyon, but bulk of our
effort has been directed towards repairing the damage caused by climbers
in high traffic climbing areas such as Motorboat Rock, Triple Cracks Sanctuary,
and the Blue Trail leading up to the News Wall area. There are many more
"climber" trails which need to be worked on, and some probably
urgently so, such as access trails on Turkey Peak and at the Carnivores.
Currently, a huge split
has formed within the ranks of the CTCC over the direction our involvement
should take. The four CTCC members who also sit on the Friend of Enchanted
Rock board of directors, are informing the volunteers that the trail project
is moving to the Main Dome Trail. I am vehemently opposed to this action
as it does little to directly benefit and preserve our climbing access. With
very few exceptions, all of the manual labor used on the Trail Project has
come from the ranks of the climbing community. While I do not dispute that
the Main Dome Trail needs work, this work needs to come from sources other
than the climbing community and CTCC.
We the climbers, are not
the major cause of damage and erosion on the Main Dome Trail, nor are we
even users of this trail in most circumstances. It is argued that climbers
performing the work on the Main Dome trail will project a "good public
image" of climbers. To this I respond that we have contributed 4 climbers
to the board of Friends of Enchanted Rock, and we have also contributed significant
funds to the FOER organization through the Granite Gripper. We average about
12 people that show up for the trail project, and I don’t want to see
us lose those people to the Main Dome trail work for the next year.
This situation as it currently
stands, illustrates a clear conflict of interest on the part of those CTCC
members
that also sit on the Board of the Friends of Enchanted Rock. I would not
take issue to the fact under normal
circumstances, except that they now intend of depleting the human resources
of CTCC's Trail Project to work on a project that essentially only benefits
tourists of Enchanted Rock and single-day visitors at that!
It is my belief that the
climbers should repair the damage that we are the primary cause of. It is
my belief that a different organization needs to focus on repairing damage
caused by the casual park visitors on the Main Dome Trail.
You the climbers of Central
Texas have elected us to be your representatives in issues related to climbing.
I
urge you to make your opinion known to the representatives you have elected.
Write to me, or anyone else on the CTCC or Friends of Enchanted Rock committee
and make your opinion known.
My address: Larry Kruse
- CTCC Secretary
12842 Sandri Lane
Houston, TX 77077
e-mail: lkruse@swbell.net
Mike Lewis - CTCC Chairperson
- President Friends of Enchanted Rock
10921 Hollow Ridge
Helotes, TX 78023
e-mail: lewismjac@aol.com
Denise Wilks - CTCC Treasurer
729 College Oaks Drive
Arlington, TX 76010
e-mail: dwlx@webtv.net
Gail Billings - CTCC
- Friends of Enchanted Rock board
10114 Womack Drive
Leander, TX 78641
e-mail: gailmccb@prismnet.com
John Myrick - CTCC
1071 Clayton Ln, #502
Austin, TX 78723
e-mail: powermerchant@yahoo.com
Rick Watson - CTCC -
Friends of Enchanted Rock board
1123 hollow Creek
Dr. #203
Austin, TX 78704
e-mail: watsonrb@mail.utexas.edu
Barry Wilson
3303 South Oak
Austin, TX 78704
e-mail: bkwat@earthlink.net
Rob Trippett - ERSNA
Park Superintendent
– Friends of Enchanted
Rock board
16710 R.R. 965
Fredericksburg, TX 78624
e-mail: Erock@moment.net
