On Daddy's Creek
"It is clear that the managers for this area are biased towards turkey hunters, at the expense of other legitimate stakeholders for this national treasure."
By Rob Hammond
President, Keel-Haulers Canoe Club
Cleveland, Ohio
It was my first run on Daddy's Creek, it was a great day on a great river, but now we were at the takeout, time to load up and head home to Ohio. On getting out of my boat I noticed a hand written note on the windshield of our van and two law enforcement officers out of their vehicles waiting for us. Their body language did not indicate any urgency. Although I was not too concerned, I was curious as to why they were there. Others in our party went over to talk to the officers, I chose to take off my wet gear and read the note on our van.
This was the last river and the last day of our 6-day paddling trip for Scott and myself, on what is Keel-Haulers Canoe club's annual Southern Rivers trip. This is a mid April trip, we travel from our home in the Cleveland Ohio area to paddle various rivers in Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee and other states depending on river levels, and whims of the boaters on the trip. Some of the standards that we like to do every year are: the Nolichucky, Chattooga section IV, and the Ocoee. This year we also sampled the Watauga, the Tellico, and the Little River. Our trip started out with 22 Keel-Haulers from as far a way as Michigan and one from Germany. Towards the end of our trip, the group dwindled to 11 of us. As we contemplated what river to do next, our trip leader, John Kobak, suggested something in the Obed River system. John had previously been on
Daddy's Creek, he described it as Class 4 version, of one of our favorite home rivers, the Upper Youghiogheny River. That was all I need to hear, I love technical boating, and I love the Upper Yough, so
Daddy's Creek got my vote, without hesitation. But John warned us "they have some sort of restriction on the weekends during hunting season, so we will have to do the River on Thursday to avoid the Friday to Sunday closing of the park". After a little discussion it was agreed to head up to the Obed so that we could do
Daddy's Creek on Thursday.
John was a little unsure of the shuttle route, but he knew that the National Park Service had a visitor center that could give us directions. When we got to the center we were all impressed at helpfulness of the staff, and the tourism promotion that the office was providing. The Brochure that they gave us showed us all of the roads, a river chart rating the runs at different river levels, and lots of paddling, swimming and hiking pictures. We all concluded that the
Park was very supportive of paddlers.
After the warm reception we received at the park office, things started to change once we started driving our shuttle. After driving for several miles we noticed an open gate across the road and a sign that said, "Closed for big game hunting". "Big game hunting? Like lions, tigers and bears?" I murmured to the group in the van. We are all kind of naive to the local customs "perhaps they mean deer hunting" some one volunteered. Scott, who has done some hunting said, "naw they hunt deer in the fall, it has to be turkey season" "well if they consider turkey big game, what do they consider small game, humming birds?" someone else quipped. "Well what do we do now" I asked, "the map says that only way to get to the Devils Breakfast Table takeout, is on this road". John said "they probably just put the signs up a day early". Fortunately for us, we were not going to let weak rationalizations hold us back from our appointed rounds, so when we all accepted John's explanation and drove on. During the whole shuttle we did not see any vehicles, hunters, rangers, or lions, tigers, and bears! As a matter of fact the only people we saw outside of our group the whole day was the 2 rangers at the takeout.
We ran the shuttle without incident. The temps were in the 70's, the level was at 1.4, which turned to be a great level to enjoy
Daddy's Creek. John mentioned that this was the best run in the whole Obed system, and I was not going to argue with that! We found some house size boulders in the river; it was technical, but not intimidating for strong intermediate boaters. On the river, just as on the road there was no sign or sound of any other people, hunters or boaters.
So back to the take out; I checked out the note left on our van. The hand written note said "We each got one too" signed: Stu and Boris. Stu and Boris were the two guys in our group who went on ahead of us, to get an early start on their trip back to home in Michigan. Got one what, I thought? Well a glance over to the rangers revealed some very animated and annoyed paddlers. It seemed that the park was indeed closed, and we were all being given tickets for trespassing in a public park. The irony of trespassing, a private property crime, in a publicly owned park seemed to have been lost on the officers. We were all fined $142, well all - of us except for two scofflaws who hid out in a van. The rangers thought there were more of us, but did not think to compare the number of boats to the number of tickets. At any rate, the rangers had made quite the haul that day. I am sure their supervisors were very happy with the very generous $1,200 that we donated to Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency!
To say that we were more than a highly annoyed would be doing a great disservice to linguistic purists! We felt like the political authority having jurisdiction over this national park was exploiting us. It is very curious why whoever manages this Federally owned tract of land, ignores most of the stakeholders, and gives priority to a small group; turkey hunters. These hunters, which we outnumbered that day 11 to 0, have been given the run of these tax payer furnished lands, during the prime boating season. Now I am not suggesting that boaters be given preference over hunters; that would be as discriminatory as the current practice. But we certainly need to look at how the various stakeholders can coexist on this prime real estate.
Daddy's Creek, as much of the Obed System, resides in an area known as the Catoosa Wildlife Management Area (CWMA), and is co-managed by the National Park Service and the State of Tennessee. The mission of this cooperative effort is: "Preserve the river in a free-flowing condition, preserve and protect the water quality, wildlife resources, and primitive character of the area". Sounds to me like recreational kayaking more compatible with this mission than recreational hunting! I can't begin to understand the how this land, purchased with Federal tax dollars, is not managed by the National Park Service, but that is another story. It is clear that the managers for this area are biased towards turkey hunters, at the expense of other legitimate stakeholders for this national treasure.
I know it's always easy to complain about an injustice, but not so easy to provide answers to problem. But as someone with little understanding of the local political landscape and issues, I would be naïve to think I have answers to issues that people on the ground have been dealing with for a long time. However, I do question why the park has to be closed for hunting turkeys. Hunting is a widespread activity, that does not demand closure of massive parks in other areas, why is it the CWMA is required to close. It can't be a safety issue; otherwise it would not be safe for hunters to be in the woods either. I understand that a lot of boaters look like turkeys, and some boaters are indeed turkeys; but it seems that hunters could make the distinction between turkeys that fly and turkeys that boat! As boaters we would want to be aware of the fact that a turkey hunt was on, but it should be our choice to boat. If it can somehow be rationalized that hunters cannot coexist with the rest of us, why does the closure have to be so extensive? Does the entire park have to be closed? Can the closures be on alternating weeks?
Now I am not a conspiracy buff, so I don't think that a vast right wing turkey-hunting lobby is the cause this injustice. The charitable part of me suspects that the closure came from a long tradition that had little impact on non-turkey hunters. So fifty years ago, during the month of April, there was probably not any competing interests for the CWMA. Since hunting predates recreational kayaking by a decade or two, I can understand how the practice may have had its roots. But today there are other stakeholders who have as legitimate interests as hunters, in this land owned by all of the people. It is unfortunate that the hunting and kayaking seasons coincide, but I think that rational people can work out a reasonable, mutually agreeable solution to this issue. The question is how can the parties be brought together. There is certainly no interest by the party of the status quo to come to the bargaining table. But, maybe financial interests can drive strange bedfellows to lie together? The argument for maintaining the status quo, cannot be so compelling, that alternatives cannot be worked out.
Until that solution is given birth, and you are kayaking on Daddy's
Creek, be sure to have a hunting license, and carry a stick. This way if Ranger Bob stops you, you can explain that a stick is your preferred weapon against the vicious "big game" turkey!
