Zion SAR Study Results - presentation Aug 30th, 11 AM

[ratagonia]

The NPS has been hosting a university research team who are studying the backcountry SARs over the past 10 years.

They are having a park-wide meeting on August 30, 11am, at the Nature Center to present the results of this study, which should prove to be very interesting. Additionally they will be providing other information about the Park and a State of the park address by Jock.

You are invited. Show up a little early, as it will be busy.

It is a good opportunity to meet with Park staff, meet Superintendent Jock Whitworth, and hear about how they operate our Park.

Enjoy,

Tom

[canyonguru]

Thanks for the update, Can you post the results for those of use who will not be able to attend.

[CarpeyBiggs]

i'll be coming from the north rim... will you be there tom?

[ratagonia]

i'll be coming from the north rim... will you be there tom?

I will, making a point of it. Maybe we could video it???

Tom

[CarpeyBiggs]

if they let us, certainly... i've got the audio kit with me too. can you see if we can get permission? i'll try and get out of here early after sunrise, and pray the hooptie doesn't die on dirt roads. pretty sure i can make it in time.

[Felicia]

Well - did anyone go? How was the meeting?

Felicia

[CarpeyBiggs]

tom and i went. it was interesting, but it focused mainly on frontcountry resources, injuries, and SARs. they are still compiling the data in the backcountry and how it relates more closely to canyoneering. they said the information will all be made public, as well as today's presentation... i videotaped it, but i concluded there was little interest for canyoneering as a whole. there were a couple of interesting slides, that we will post when they make the presentation public.

[Felicia]

Thanks Dan for the update. Will there be another public presentation?

[CarpeyBiggs]

doubtful. seems like the intern who was doing all the data collection and analysis is only in the park temporarily, and in 3 months, was only able to enter 2006-2010's data, which totaled just under 600 SARs. understandably, the data collection doesn't appear to be very standardized, and it required the gal to go through every paper report, read them, and then glean the information from them into a database, as well as formulate GIS layers that showed where the accidents happen. pretty interesting stuff, but i'm not really sure another public presentation is necessary (this one wasn't really "public." it was an employee meeting for all the rangers, and a few guides and locals, i guess?) as long as they publish the data, we should all be able to formulate some opinions. the GIS layers and graphs were cool though, hope they can do some analysis between rates of SAR in the backcountry vs. frontcountry in the next few months.

[Felicia]

Interesting - thanks for the information.

Felicia