Indefinite Closure of The Zoo crag in RRG, KY

It is with a heavy heart that we announce the indefinite closure of The Zoo, one of the most iconic outdoor climbing areas in the region. For years, this area has been home to some of the most classic and challenging rock climbs, attracting climbers of all levels who have cherished its unique features, high quality climbing, and its central location in the heart of the Gorge. 
As of now, the Coalition has no further information regarding the reason for the closure, but we are urging everyone to respect the landowner’s wishes. There is currently a "no trespassing" policy in place. While this news is difficult to process, we ask for your cooperation in adhering to the closure and supporting the landowners’ decision.
The Zoo was a privately owned crag, not part of Coalition property. This serves as a stark reminder of why we work so hard to secure land access for climbing—so that we can ensure the long-term preservation of such special places. This situation highlights the challenges of climbing area access and is a reminder of the importance of land ownership for the climbing community.
We are actively working to gather more information and will keep you updated as we learn more. Please stay tuned to our socials for any developments, and in the meantime, we invite you to share your favorite memories at The Zoo below. As we reflect on the legacy of The Zoo, let us continue to stand together in support of our climbing community.

Bummer. I’ve been meaning to go back for hippocrite for nearly a decade and always thought “it’s not going anywhere”.

Does anybody know what caused the landowner to restrict access?

Heavy erosion and general climbers shitshow

ginger wrote:

source?

“I closed it because of erosion around the bottom of the cliff, illegal camping, no upkeep on trails, and continued installation of climbing bolts and screws on fragile sandstone cliffs. I resent the climbers’ sense of entitlement—that they can climb anywhere and do anything to private property without permission and leave it a mess. There are plenty of places to climb in this area.”

https://www.climbing.com/news/the-zoo-closure-at-red-river-gorge/

ginger wrote:

source?

Buncha different faces used their mouths?? And it was easy to read things with my eyes...

That’s a bummer. I hope this proves to be temporary. Future access is no guarantee, even on public land. We all need to do something to help maintain it.

Has the landowner changed in recent years? Did the current landowner communicate with the local climbers coalition and ask for help with mitigating the aforementioned issues before taking this drastic step? Did they complain about bolting before, or is this a new issue to them? Could this be a ploy to sell the land at an inflated price?

plantmandan wrote:

That’s a bummer. I hope this proves to be temporary. Future access is no guarantee, even on public land. We all need to do something to help maintain it.

Has the landowner changed in recent years? Did the current landowner communicate with the local climbers coalition and ask for help with mitigating the aforementioned issues before taking this drastic step? Did they complain about bolting before, or is this a new issue to them? Could this be a ploy to sell the land at an inflated price?

The landowner is under no obligation to do any of those things. Opening up such an amazing tract of land to climbers was a gift and it was the responsibility of us climbers to mitigate our impact and maintain good relations, not the landowner. It would be nice if the land owner communicated beforehand but let's not place blame on them (however subtle) for the failings of our community.

One of the issues with a place like RRG is that the ratio of local climbers to visiting climbers is heavily skewed towards visiting climbers and visiting climbers are a lot less inclined to do stewardship activities during their visit. Let this be a reminder to all of us that we need to take care of the places we love. Not just the bolts but the trails and belay areas too.

Israel R wrote:

The landowner is under no obligation to do any of those things. Opening up such an amazing tract of land to climbers was a gift and it was the responsibility of us climbers to mitigate our impact and maintain good relations, not the landowner. It would be nice if the land owner communicated beforehand but let's not place blame on them (however subtle) for the failings of our community.

One of the issues with a place like RRG is that the ratio of local climbers to visiting climbers is heavily skewed towards visiting climbers and visiting climbers are a lot less inclined to do stewardship activities during their visit. Let this be a reminder to all of us that we need to take care of the places we love. Not just the bolts but the trails and belay areas too.

While I basically agree with you, I do think this situation raises some interesting questions. The Zoo has been 'developed' over many years and has also been popular for a long time. It is not a situation, that is seen sometimes, of a 'new area' being subject to a 'new route gold rush' --so going from undeveloped to very busy in a very quick period of time.  So, I wonder whether the RRGCC was in ongoing communication with the land owner or not. And if they were in communication,  to what extent did the landowner express his concerns over time and what steps were taken to alert the climbing community of those concerns and to try to address them? Yes, the landowner was under no obligation, but it does seem surprising that, given the amount of use over time, that he acted so suddenly.
And, of course, given that it is private property, the RRGCC wouldn't have been able to do any amelioration work without the landowner's permission and support. I recall that it is very steep there, so the erosion is not at all surprising.

•  I resent the climbers’ sense of entitlement—that they can climb anywhere and do anything to private property without permission and leave it a mess.

It seems like some people are really missing this statement so I'll try and focus you there. This is what matters. Not what any coalition was doing or who was talking to or communicating with whomever. That statement is the most important one to focus on. Or just keep losing private land access. 

Personally if I ever bought any property with established climbing on it, 1st thing I'd do is close it. That statement and the truth of it is why. 

BigCountry wrote:

•  I resent the climbers’ sense of entitlement—that they can climb anywhere and do anything to private property without permission and leave it a mess.

It seems like some people are really missing this statement so I'll try and focus you there. This is what matters. Not what any coalition was doing or who was talking to or communicating with whomever. That statement is the most important one to focus on. Or just keep losing private land access. 

Personally if I ever bought any property with established climbing on it, 1st thing I'd do is close it. That statement and the truth of it is why. 

While this is undoubtedly ( and unfortunately) a generally correct assessment, there are also many examples ( some of them in the Red) where education, cooperation between landowners and representatives of the climbing community, and development of good 'infrastructure' have helped achieve a reasonable balance. I'm not saying that such approaches are 'perfect', the shear numbers involved in the sport these days ( again especially at places such as the Red) inevitably lead to problems, but they show that responsible use of the limited 'rock resources' is possible.

I'm not faulting the RRGCC at all in this situation. They have such a vast area to 'cover', with so many different land ownership situations, and they do a fantastic job. It is just very unfortunate that the situation at the Zoo has reached this point. It should be both a warning and a lesson to all of us.

Where is the Access Fund when you need them? Oh that's right - making sure that Devil's Tower doesn't get climbed in June and suing Donald Trump. 

BigCountry wrote:

Personally if I ever bought any property with established climbing on it, 1st thing I'd do is close it. That statement and the truth of it is why. 

Wow.   

The modern state of stewardship is absolute nonsense. So many organizations set up programs and elect "stewards" or "guides"  that are supposedly meant to inform people about how to manage themselves in these areas but they really don't seem to be doing the right job. I feel like the modern age of stewardship is heavily focused on inclusion, land acknowledgment and getting participation ( donations ) up, and are passive and/or not informative about keeping areas accessible by discussing rules and etiquette. A lot of people honestly dont know any better because nobody told them, which is still no excuse to be an idiot. But, at my home crag we have like 4 full sized signs  ( 8' x 4' ) about land acknowledgement but literally none about rules. Not to say a sign is going to change everyones behavior upon entering a crag, but it helps in the same way the sound of a shotgun loading is a good deterrent for a burglar, but don't necessarily have to have it loaded or fire it. Now still, this all falls upon all visitors and yes, the entitlement has been spreading like a wildfire among the community, especially those who are new to the sport and just don't know any better. Gym to crag has been a massive failure, stewardship is failing. Its just a shame. Everyone is afraid to say anything to people because it may upset them because they believe the rules they are breaking to be trivial, even though every dumb decision threatens access. Following the rules and enjoying your time in nature is literally the easiest fucking thing to do. 

Edit: Im not saying that ALL stewardship efforts have gone completely off the rails. Some organizations do a fantastic job with what little they have and allocate their resources effectively. Im definitely saying we have to do better overall. 

grug g wrote:

Where is the Access Fund when you need them? Oh that's right - making sure that Devil's Tower doesn't get climbed in June and suing Donald Trump. 

Well Grug, as those who pay attention should be aware, in such situations the Access Fund works through and with local climbing advocacy organizations, in this case the RRGCC. While I have no direct knowledge, I have a strong feeling that both organizations are currently working together to try to achieve a favorable eventual outcome for this situation ( though, of course, success is far from guaranteed), but, if it happens at all, it won't occur 'overnight'.

As for suing Trump. Since he is still a private citizen I don't believe that there are any such suits ongoing. However, if, once he is inaugurated and in office, he takes actions that are inimical to climbing and such a suit is deemed to be the best way to try to protect those interests, then I would hope that the AF would undertake such an action.

Oh, and the AF did play a significant role in the enactment of the recently-signed Explore/PARC Act, which was a major victory for climbers.

How much have you contributed towards any of these endeavors?

It's neither here nor there but getting a taste of Instagram Socialists (see RRGCC and Climbing feeds) bemoaning the existence of private property in Kentucky is enlightening:

"I’ve never really understood this whole “land ownership thing”
"Yet another reason why we need to abolish private property "

"Yeah gotta love the principle of someone out here just owning nature "
"To me, it seems incomprehensible that someone can own a piece of nature and restrict its use."
"These beautiful lands shouldn’t even be allowed to be privately owned "
"I bet her name is Karen... "

These remind me of numerous comments on social media from MTBers in Boulder County, a user group with unsurprisingly little support from local land managers

Folks in KY, and Appalachia more broadly, have a bad history with outsiders directing public appropriation of land, most spectacularly with the Mammoth Cave National Park, but even with the RRG itself. See this page for more https://wvpublic.org/in-appalachia-controversy-and-mystery-still-surround-lakes-built-by-the-army-corps-of-engineers/ 

It should be obvious by now that mainstream climbing culture is increasingly incompatible with responsible respectful land visitation. Wannabes trying to boost their threadbare social media clout is certainly part of the problem but pros can set their standard higher as well in their photos and videos. Let's start with at least pretending to carry pads to the boulders and not yelling while climbing. 

Alan Rubin wrote:

How much have you contributed towards any of these endeavors?

None - I'll never give the AF another dollar. They wasted MILLIONS suing donald trump (who will never be convicted of anything because he is Teflon-Don).  

Local climbing orgs only.

grug g wrote:

None - I'll never give the AF another dollar. They wasted MILLIONS suing donald trump (who will never be convicted of anything because he is Teflon-Don).  

Local climbing orgs only.

You have a complex set of ideas across threads. You close enough to the sierras to have a beer sometime?

There is no such thing as an advocacy organization that you will perfectly agree with 100% of the time.  90% for the Access Fund is a very high success rate.  You need only look at the AF web site to see an ENORMOUS list of accomplishments.  https://www.accessfund.org/our-work

And Second, as has already been pointed out, it is the trump admin that gets sued.  And very often the trump admin LOSES.  This is one of the best ways to stop unconstitutional crookery.

"According to the Institute for Policy Integrity, Trump’s administration has failed nearly 93% of the time when its agency actions have been challenged in court — typically for violations of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).  Democracy Forward’s team of APA litigators and experts has helped deliver legal blows to the Trump administration in successful challenges over, among other things, Trump’s unlawful halt of equal pay data collection, illegal delay of e-cigarette regulation, refusal of care rule, and unexplained weakening of nutrition standards for school meals."  https://democracyforward.org/updates/trump-loses-93-percent-of-cases-we-know-because-we-win/

"Lawsuit Saves Trump White House Records | National Security Archive"  https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/news/foia/2021-02-12/lawsuit-saves-trump-white-house-records

"This Article presents an original empirical analysis of the Trump Administration’s success rate in legal challenges to the Administration’s agency actions. The findings are striking. While prior administrations prevailed in approximately 70% of legal challenges to agency actions, the Trump Administration’s success rate was 23%."  law.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/DavisNoll-TiredofWinning_0.pdf

"The CBD filed 266 suits against the Trump administration from its inception to its last day.  And won 9 out of every 10 resolved cases."    https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/trump_lawsuits/

Peter Beal wrote:

It's neither here nor there but getting a taste of Instagram Socialists (see RRGCC and Climbing feeds) bemoaning the existence of private property in Kentucky is enlightening:

You are quite incorrect and cherry picking to think that only the "libs" are out trashing lands.

Peter Beal wrote:

Wannabes trying to boost their threadbare social media clout is certainly part of the problem but pros can set their standard higher as well in their photos and videos. Let's start with at least pretending to carry pads to the boulders and not yelling while climbing. 

South Side crags at the NRG/Meadow  were closed due to ATV-ers crashing and using medevacs. Way to own those liberal rock climbers!

I think yall are owning yourselves. I can't seem to find in Peter's statement where he is calling out liberals.

Yall seem to be the definition of climber entitlement