Wednesday, August 10, 2022

A River Runs Through It wasn’t filmed on the Delaware River but it could have been. Controversy Erupts Over Proposal For PA’s First National Park. I took my brother fishing on the Upper Delaware.

My brother Joe and me went on a fly fishing trip. We camped along the Delaware River near Hancock NY on the Pennsylvania side. My brother had been fishing with his friend in Gardiner Montana every summer for some time. He remarked how the Delaware and the fish in it are like Montana rivers.  Joe and his son live in Bozeman MT now. 

Along the banks of the Delaware

While the Delaware Water Gap is currently overseen by the National Park Service, National Recreation Areas are not privy to quite the same level of protection. For one, more intensive land use and consumptive activities like hunting are allowed in a National Recreation Area. National Parks more aggressively enforce the protection of the natural environment from other uses. They also typically prohibit hunting, although the Sierra Club's proposal for the Delaware Water Gap is unusual in that it would still allow hunting at the same level as is currently permitted. It would create a preserve within the park and continue protections where they exist now.


The Delaware is special. It's the longest free-flowing waterway east of the Mississippi. Meandering 300 miles from the Catskill Mountains to the Delaware Bay. 

I'm not sure of what the physical effect in changing the Delaware Water Gap from national recreation area to national park will be. I think the beauty of the Delaware will be introduced to more people as a National Park. 

There is some controversy over eminent domain. But it won't be like the 1990s & early 2000s. 

“Americans for Prosperity” doesn’t do eminent domain anymore. The issue was never about the rights of physical property, say a farm, it was property rights for corporations. Once Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission became the law of the land the fight was over, corporations won. 

The photo at the top of my Riverseekerblog is in the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone National Park.
 


Right now the roads we used to access fishing in the Lamar Valley are closed to fishing. For information on when it might re-open, see:


Yellowstone National Park, ID, MT, WY 

Flood Recovery and Operations



I didn't want to re-format my post on Riverseekerblog. A click on the link below should take you to it.

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