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As discussed in this thread, the Utah Board of Parks and Recreation will be meeting at Soldier Hollow Day Lodge tomorrow (Friday, July 8th). A discussion of BASE jumping (and it's place in the State Park system) is on the agenda between 1:00pm and 1:40pm.

The Soldier Hollow Day Lodge is located at Soldier Hollow Golf Course, in Wasatch Mountain State Park, on Route 113, approximately 3 miles south of Midway, Utah. (Map)

The Alliance of Backcountry Parachutists has submitted a briefing for the board, and ABP board members will be attending the meeting to present this material to the Board of Parks and Recreation.

I encourage jumpers to attend the meeting, although time for public comment is expected to be minimal (there are 5 items on the agenda for that 40 minute time frame).

If you are attending the meeting, please keep several things in mind:

1) This is not an adversarial situation. Our goal here is to convince the Board that jumping should be considered in their planning process. Attacking them would be counterproductive.

2) You will be taken by the public, the board, and the media as a representative of our sport. Please dress professionally and conduct yourself appropriately.

3) The most positive result we can hope for is an open planning period in which the park system works with jumpers to create a management plan covering jumping. Our biggest goal for tomorrow is to open discussions with the park system, so that public input (including ours) can be heard before a decision is made regarding the future of jumping in state parks in Utah.

I have attached the ABP briefing document to this post as a .pdf file.

Hmmm. I missed the attachment. Let's try that again.

Ahh. It's too large for the attachment limit. PM or Email me if you want it. I'll send it by email to everyone I've heard from that expressed interest.

Ok, I have temporarily uploaded the briefing document to my public folder here.

That looks great. It makes a good statement, and I imagine a few people will be surprised that, despite our cliche image, base jumpers managed to come up with such a professionally written document. Great work!


I would like to second this. Now is not the time to start yelling, cursing or calling people names, however emotional you might feel about this situation. Your appearance alone makes a valuable impression, which can only be strengthened by politeness and solid argumentation.

One question about the brief; it mentions:


Can an ABP representative elaborate on this?

Very well written!

I don't have much information regarding the intended discussion, but this proposal is only to "table" the discussion until further research can be done. What about approval of the desired use given the information at hand? It seems table'ing the discussion could result in a "ban until further notice" very easily without the need for the State Park to make a rule or pass a law prohibiting jumping.

I hope you guys come over good on them, and make a head way that you need. Keep on truckin!

Nice job, Tom. I could be misreading it, but the first sentence in the next to last section ("What We Seek") seems poorly, if not incorrectly, worded. Just something I felt I'd point out.

Let us all know how the Parks and Recreation people react to this meeting.

can anyone who attended post an update?...

We had around 8 or 10 jumpers in attendance. Kudoz to everyone for dressing and presenting professionally, and making a good impression on the park management. I think the board was especially impressed by the number of concerned Utah jumpers who were able to make it, and the statements they made.

Alliance of Backcountry Parachutists board member Jason Dawson gave a good presentation on jumping, and statements were made and questions answered by several local jumpers, and by myself. What started out as a 10 minute agenda item ended up stretching to over an hour, and discussions continued with park staff after that, as well.

The results were fairly positive. The board took no immediate action, and will now begin discussing the inclusion of BASE in planning process for both this specific park, and for the overall state park system.

This is likely to be an ongoing process that will involve state park staff, local jumpers, and some support from the ABP. It promises to be a fair amount of work, including review of specific sites in specific parks, and decisions relating to the impacts at each location.

The good news is that (a) they know we're concerned, and they want to work with us, (b) they didn't just make a decision, (c) jumpers came out to the meeting, and will now be involved in the planning process, and (d) the park board and staff are both open to jumping, and interested in learning more.

There should be an official ABP statement sent out to members in the next couple days. I'll try to post that into this thread as well.

very nice.
good work.

your efforts are appreciated.

St. Louis crew wants to send it's thanks to the ABP and the local jumpers who attended.

way to set an example.. we need more organized groups representing BASE and Skydivers across the globe.
Lets help support what we love!