Liberty and Ellis Islands: Public Comment

Dear Friends,

As many of you know, the USCG, National Parks Department and Homeland
Security are planning to expand the security zone around Liberty and Ellis
Islands. Among other things, the new zone will eliminate crossing between
the islands, push boaters closer to the channel, into rougher water
and higher density motor vehicle traffic.

About 6 weeks ago a number of paddlers had the opportunity to express their
concerns face to face with LCDR Mike McBrady, who heads up the Waterway
Management Division of USCG Sector New York. He followed up the exchange
with an email which stated that if the human powered community proposed a "
'kayaker corridor' between/behind the islands [to] improve safety while not
being detrimental to security (i.e. kayaks are small and slow and not the
vector of choice for terrorists trying to injure land based tourists or sink
vessels) that would definitely be considered as an option by the USCG and
USPS."

Many members of our community have already written letters and filed them
with Homeland Security, including Rob Buchanan for Village Community
Boathouse, Tim Gamble for Red Hook Boaters, Ilene Levenson for the Sebago
Canoe Club. There may be many more -- those are just the ones I am aware
of.

The Guild has also written a letter, and working with Rob & Tim, we have
drafted 3 proposals for the consideration of the USCG and National Parks.
(We submitted three because the Coast Guard encouraged us to submit more
than one proposed solution to the concerns we've raised). Please go to our
website to read the letter and review the proposed solutions to the problems
the new zone would cause.

http://www.hrpg.net/liberty-and-ellis-island-secur/

If you support maintaining a human powered boat corridor around and between
Liberty and Ellis Islands, please register, via the form provide, and we
will add your name, or organization, to the list of "signatories" to our
letter. This link will take you directly to the registration page.

http://www.hrpg.net/sol-supporters/

The public comment period for this proposed expansion ends July 7th, but due
to the holiday, we will be filing the final letter & charts with Homeland
Security on Wednesday, July 3rd, this week.

Many Thanks,
Bill Bergeron
President
HRPG