Catoosa Access 

The Catoosa Wildlife Management Area is public land managed by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.  

Tennessee Paddle and American Whitewater are working on behalf of paddlers to obtain access to the Daddy's Creek and Island Creek river access areas inside the Catoosa Wildlife Management Area. 

Access to Devils Breakfast Table is listed among American Whitewater's top 40 access issues  for 2000 (Adobe Acrobat file). We have sent a letter to Governor Don Sunquist (Adobe Acrobat file 85k) regarding our concerns about two access issues: a long-time problem in securing access to Daddy's Creek at Devil's Breakfast Table, DBT and a new issue concerning an access point on Island Creek. We are seeking a resolution on both of these issues.

We received a response from the Governor's Office which stated "The Governor does not have the authority to direct the TWRA to take the steps you suggested.....The Governor has, however, asked me to request TWRA to give careful review and full consideration to the requests you made."  We then received the formal TWRA response to the letter to the Governor (Acrobat file) from the Region III Manager of TWRA. We shared it with the National Park Service since TWRA attributed the resolution of the Catoosa problem to them.  We expect to receive a response from the NPS shortly.  

We are not asking you to do anything at this point other than become informed about this topic. We are gathering more information and support. We will begin to collect signatures on a petition at the Tennessee Paddle Festival.   Stay tuned here for more. - as of April 2, 2001 

Catoosa 2001 Closure Information

In 2001 the Catoosa WMA is closed to all users February 1 through the last Friday in March. Additionally Catoosa is closed to all except turkey hunters: April 6-8, 13-15, 20-22, 24-26, 27-29 and  May 1-3.  

Devil's Breakfast Table

Permanent ongoing access to DBT is being sought on the dates the area is open for hunting. During hunting closures Catoosa WMA is closed only to non-hunter vehicle traffic. We are only attempting to gain the denied right to use the same roads the hunters use. Denying paddlers the right to drive these roads results in a 43 mile one- way shuttle between the put-in at Antioch Bridge and the alternate takeout at Obed Junction, OBJ). The total result is paddlers driving 86 miles in shuttles to paddle 8 miles of rivers. With access to DBT the shuttle is about 8 miles and avoids the Class III carry up the OBJ hill.  Also, in the event of an emergency on the river this distance could pose a substantial risk to recreationalists.

During April 2000 ten paddlers from the Keel-Haulers Canoe Club came to the area during a weekend that the area was designated as "closed" yet "open" for turkey hunting. They parked their vehicles for the shuttle. When they returned they were met by TWRA staff and each was ticketed $149 for trespassing. Here's a first person account:

Last spring I participated in Keelhaulers Southern Rivers Trip. John Kobak was the trip organizer. The last river that we ran was the Daddy's creek in Tennessee. We drove our vehicle to the takeout, then one of the Keelhaulers brought us to the put-in. Once in the water, Stu Koster and I went ahead of everybody else, because we had planned to drive back to Michigan that day.

As we were driving to the takeout, we saw the sign on the side of the road "Big Game hunters only, others keep out". However, the gate guarding the entrance was open. If I remember right, somebody suggested that the signs were left there since the last week. John was in the front vehicle, and he proceeded forward without stopping, and we followed.  After Stu and I ran the river and came to the takeout, a ranger came to us, asked "Did you see the signs" (we didn't deny it), and proceeded to write the tickets. Took him a while to do that. While he was writing, another ranger showed up. My ticket came to around $150.00. I paid it by mail.

When the rest of the group reached the takeout, the rangers wrote tickets for them too. Stu and I were already gone by that time.

I looked at the map afterwards - it seems like neither the river itself nor the parking lot (where we took out and where we got ticketed) are within the restricted area. However, the road that leads to that parking lot is within that area, and that road is the only way to get to that takeout. There is an alternative takeout a few miles downstream, but to get there you need to drive around the entire park - that would take at least an hour each way. With the extra stretch of the river to paddle, this would add at least four hours to the trips logistics - which means you'll be running out of daylight and have to rush through the run. - Boris Glick

Read another account from the Rob Hammond, President of the Keel-Haulers club.

While we respect TWRA's need to establish rules and guidelines that affect the management of the WMAs there is no other WMA where paddlers are impacted directly by the road use restriction to "hunters only".  

Click here to see a more detailed map of the area (157 Kb)      

Island Creek

On February 16, 2001 two paddlers from Oak Ridge were paddling on Island Creek. When they went back to pick up their truck at the bridge a TWRA ranger/warden was waiting on them. Read Paul Akers' first-person account.

This is an expansion of the restricted area we have been struggling with. There was no notice of this and no communication with users other than hunters. The National Park Service folks at the Obed also knew nothing about this. This makes it totally impossible to run Island Creek during these "no access"  periods. 

Support

In addition to American Whitewater, an organization of paddlers who actively support conservation and access, the clubs and associations listed below have individually expressed support for the effort to gain access to the Catoosa Wildlife Management Area access areas during hunting seasons:

For more information and to join in with support, please contact David Luinstra who is leading this initiative.