Tallulah releases, USGS

[elunopaddle]

I am affiliated with the USGS (and am a life long open boater) and have been hammering my supervisors about how much recreational river users depend on the USGS river gage data, yet how we as an agency tend to not put a face out to the public except during natural disasters, nor seem to understand how much private businesses in boater towns benefit from recreational user dollars. As you all know, USGS stage/discharge and precip data is the first thing to check when planning your free time on the water.

In order to both increase public awareness of the information we generate and make available, and remind leadership in my world that recreational users do have a voice and want more real-time gages, I would like to set up a small info table several times a year at paddler events. I missed the spring release and Tallulah Fest, which probably would have fit the bill nicely.

Do any of you feel the November releases would be an appropriate venue for this idea? Would the way the park manages the releases and parking lots work with an info booth? Has the crowd grown in size since the first couple years of releases? If you were setting up an informal info table, where would you place it for access to gawkers yet not impede traffic flow?

If anyone has any other venue ideas i'd love to hear them, also.

Sincerely (your data delivery technician),

Elunopaddle

[drrpm]

With the current drought status we'll be mighty lucky to have November releases on the Tallulah. I don't see why an info booth would be a problem, though the park service is not as boater friendly as it was in the past. The audience would likely be pretty small. I'd say attendance has not really increased over the years and varies with the availability of water in other runs.

[craig]

Gone are the days of drive there and hope for water. With so many gages being cut (all over) is there a way to keep some of them "up" maybe with just the occasional "tweaking" that seems to cost an arm and a leg? I know that many (paddlers and fishermen) rely on gages to plan on trips and local businesses benefit. ALF is one good example.