Discussion: Orienteering in US National Parks

Our club is beginning discussions with local (Cuyahoga Valley, Ohio) National Parks resource managers about Orienteering access. I would like help with two pieces of information.

First, does anyone know whether there is a US National Parks policy (at the national level) in place about orienteering? I think I remember a discussion about this in some online venue within the last 3 years, but haven't been able to refind it.

Second, which other US parks currently allow orienteering? I believe that Prince William Forest is a national park, and is actively used for orienteering, but also that access to Valley Forge NP has been revoked. I also recall some negative experiences regarding Australian orienteering access to their National Parks in recent AP threads.

QOC has maps for several parks managed by the NPS (Prince William FP, Great Falls MD, Great Falls VA, Greenbelt, Rock Creek Park), and our access to them varies. For some, we're completely welcome (Greenbelt), for others we have to work closely with the park to get permission for specific control locations (Great Falls, MD), and some we aren't allowed to use at all (Rock Creek Park).
Greg Lennon, who's on the USOF Board and the Map Committee, knows a whole lot more about this topic than I do, and may chime in here (or, contact him directly).

I have had productive dealings with the NPS here in St. Louis. They provided an excellent base map for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (AKA, The Arch) and have incorporated an O-event into their annual festival for the past two years.

BAOC has for many years used the San Francisco Presidio which is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. I am aware of other attempts made to use parks such as Yosemite and Pt. Reyes, but they were not successful. Not sure why.

The first two days of the Rocky Mountain Orienteering Festival are being held at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, CO.
There was an A meet day a few years ago at Kings Mountain National Military Park, SC.

DVOA has developed a good working relationship with the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.

I believe some Australian states have restrictions, but that's not the case in Western Australia where we have been orienteering in several National Parks since 1974. Its likely however that some of our NPs would be restricted - fortunately none that we would really want to use.

OLOU (Louisville KY) used a portion of Mammoth Cave Nat'l Park (above ground) for a rogaine a number of years ago. I am not sure why they have not used it since.

Chuck Ferguson (former USOF President) has been working on a formal national agreement with National Park Service. Not sure if it has progressed.

I can't think of any other US National Parks (other than those mentioned above by other posters) having been used for orienteering.

QOC did a Trivia-Score O' on the National Mall in Washington DC (which is NPS administered) a number of years ago, but I am not sure if any permits were obtained. That event used a standard tourist map which conveniently was scaled almost exactly to 1:10,000. Participants answered questions from observation or reading historic plaques. Also, in cooperation with USOF and Meg Garrett, the National Geographic Society published a photo-orienteering poster (map and several photos of control locations which must be identified by studying the map) of the National Mall as part of a Geography Awareness Week packet distributed to teachers in 1997. I still have a few of these packets. If anybody wants one, contact me. They'll probably cost $3 or $4 to send within the US, a little more elsewhere.

The Canadians have recently used Fundy National Park NB, and I think (I am not 100% sure) that they used Elk Island NP in Alberta a number of years ago.

In the state of Victoria it depends on the management plan of the individual park. There are some parks that we can't use but mostly they're ones we have no interest in anyway.

BAOC & terraloco used the Golden Gate National Recreation Area / Pt. Bonita in the Marin Headlands last November for the sprint finals prologue... BAOC's Presidio map is in under the same overall area.

terraloco will find out Wednesday or Thursday if we are approved to have a rogaine in Joshua Tree National Park in the California desert.

I believe SDO uses an area on the San Diego coast administered by NPS? Soime kind of fort or point or Cabrillo or something?

In Canada, the general setup is provincial parks are for recreational usage and federal parks are for protection. Very rough lines though, but it helps predict the policies one will be facing.

Keep in mind, high use parks (Banff, Jasper) have a variety of events always on their doorsteps, so they have to make an attempt at predicting cumulative effects. One event in itself has minimal impact but wildlife patterns are strongly impacted by multiple encounters - and you and I wouldn't even know we had an encounter. I've seen the grizzly bear tracking vs. trail usage graphics:-)

Sort of the opposite, here. National and State Parks are fairly tightly managed whereas the National Forests are much looser. This makes them less desireable to map because they may be subject to significant logging operations at any time. We have one good sized map of National Forest (Shirley Quad) that is basically unusable because the logging has invalidated all the vegetation mapping.

they used Elk Island NP in Alberta a number of years ago

Elk Island was used a long time ago - I competed there in 1985, but never had the feeling it was a National Park then (?). Maybe it has been upgraded since then.

I ran there in 2004 (Western Canadian Championships I think) - I'm pretty sure it was a National Park by then.