[at-l] More on spring NH hiker rescue, fines for the Whites

[David Addleton]

I think I will write "DNR" on my registration forms from now on: "Do Not Rescue"
Especially in NH. How long is the AT in NH? I'd want to get in and out
of NH asap . . . .

Here's why NH bills, but I think NH maybe takes it too far:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20091026/ap_tr_ge/us_travel_brief_yuppie911;_ylt=AvoGFTn4r47uYVZVg.aFl0as0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFkZGJwYjY1BHBvcwMxNTkEc2VjA2FjY29yZGlvbl90cmF2ZWwEc2xrA3RpcmVkZnJvbWF0bw--

And here's what they do in Russia:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/world/europe/27mushrooms.html?scp=1&sq=mushrooms%20jackals&st=cse




On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 4:37 PM,  <rockdancer97 at comcast.net> wrote:
> Since things have quieted down on the list here is an offering. The Boston
> Globe printed this yesterday. The article covers several rescues in the
> Whites and the rationale for fines. There's a  caveat for AT hikers implied
> but not explicitly stated. --RD
>
> Hikers in NH must be prepared -- or pay for rescue
>
> By Norma Love
>
> Associated Press Writer / October 29, 2009
>
> CONCORD, N.H. — Stranded with a sprained ankle on a snow-covered mountain,
> Eagle Scout Scott Mason put his survival skills to work by sleeping in the
> crevice of a boulder and jump-starting evergreen fires with hand sanitizer
> gel.
>
> He put plastic bags inside his boots to keep his feet dry as he sloshed
> through mountain runoff hidden beneath waist-deep snow. After three cold
> days last April, rescue crews spotted him hiking toward the summit of Mount
> Washington, the Northeast's highest mountain.
>
> New Hampshire officials praised his resourcefulness. So grateful was he for
> his rescuers that Mason, 17, sent $1,000 to the state.
>
> Sometime later, New Hampshire sent him a bill: $25,734.65 for the cost of
> rescuing him.
>
> New Hampshire is one of eight states with laws allowing billing for rescue
> costs, but only New Hampshire has made frequent attempts to do so -- even
> strengthening its law last year to allow the suspension of hiking, fishing
> and driver's licenses of those who don't pay, according to an Associated
> Press review.
>
> National search and rescue organizations insist just the possibility of
> being billed is dangerous policy. Hikers may delay calling for help while
> they think about the cost, and that could put them -- and the mostly
> volunteer corps of rescuers -- at greater risk.
>
> Other states with laws allowing them to recoup costs rarely, if ever,
> enforce them, largely for that reason, the AP found.
>
> "If it had happened in Colorado, he would have been applauded for being able
> to survive for three days," said Paul "Woody" Woodward, president of
> Colorado's Alpine Rescue Team. "New Hampshire is way out on their own on
> this one."
>
> New Hampshire officials counter that being properly prepared -- not the size
> of the scout's bill -- should be the message about visiting wilderness
> areas. And, fish and game officials say, many of the state's trailheads are
> posted with signs warning hikers they may be billed for rescue costs if they
> aren't properly prepared.
>
> Mason, now an 18-year-high school senior, from Halifax, Mass., has hired a
> lawyer to try to negotiate a settlement. Officials said he was found to be
> negligent because he veered off the marked path, was unprepared for melting
> snow that made a shortcut perilous and went up the mountain with an injured
> ankle, not down.
>
> The bill included more than $24,000 for a helicopter and labor provided by
> state fish and game officers. Volunteers provided their time at no charge.
>
> Three states besides New Hampshire -- Hawaii, Oregon and Maine -- have
> general laws allowing agencies to bill for rescues. Only Maine has attempted
> to recoup money a handful of times and the bills were never paid.
> California, Vermont, Colorado and Idaho have laws allowing state agencies to
> bill in limited circumstances, but the laws are rarely enforced -- and when
> they are; draw a firestorm of protest from search and rescue groups.
>
> Two years ago, the fire department in Golden, Colo., rescued a hiker from
> Kansas who had sprained his ankle and later billed him for $5,135. The
> outcry from national search and rescue groups influenced the city to change
> its policy and settle with the hiker for 10 percent of the bill.
>
> Only New Hampshire has consistently billed people. Last year, lawmakers
> increased the likelihood of being billed when they lowered the legal
> standard from reckless to negligent to make it easier to collect.
>
> Records obtained by The Associated Press from a Freedom of Information Act
> request found that New Hampshire spent $413,543 on 275 rescue missions over
> the past two years. The state issued 16 bills for rescues totaling $41,435
> -- with Mason's $25,000 bill the largest. The state spent far more, $59,426,
> on a December 2007 search that was not billed. In that case, the body of the
> 70-year-old hunter was found four months later. His family was not billed.
>
> "We're not going out there with the intent to bill everyone," insists Fish
> and Game Maj. Timothy Acerno.
>
> Policies vary across the country on penalizing people who ignore weather
> warnings, don't carry flashlights on long hikes, fail to leave itineraries,
> ski out of bounds or are otherwise unprepared or act irresponsibly.
>
> If Mason had gotten lost in a National Park, his rescue would have been
> free, said David Barna, chief of public affairs for the National Park
> Service.
>
> New Hampshire officials stress they only bill those who are negligent.
>
> Acerno said that experienced search and rescue volunteers and fish and game
> staff consider what a reasonable person would have done and measure the
> person's actions against a hiker responsibility code that calls for knowing
> the terrain and conditions, taking proper gear, leaving an itinerary and
> turning back if conditions change. The attorney general's office makes the
> final determination.
>
> Hannah Groom, a 21-year-old college student from Cumberland, Maine, learned
> the hard way.
>
> While grateful for rescuers' help, Groom said the $3,360 bill sent to her
> and a friend was steep for one night on New Hampshire's Baldface Mountain in
> May. The two had planned a day hike, but took a wrong trail. She blames
> confusing trail markers.
>
> "I do not believe that charging two young adults such a high fee for a
> mistake caused by poor trail markers is warranted," she wrote The AP in an
> e-mail.
>
> Acerno said they were billed because they didn't tell anyone where they
> planned to hike and didn't have proper equipment, especially a flashlight.
>
> Seasoned winter hiker John Winship, 46, of Boxford, Mass., paid the state
> $4,000 instead of his $1,479 bill after spending four days on Mount
> Washington last March when he missed his trail by 50 feet in a snowstorm.
> The third night out, he was getting frostbite.
>
> "I was so grateful I got out of it. I have 10 fingers and 10 toes," he said
> of the experience.
>
> Allen Clark, whose volunteer Pemigewasset Rescue Team participated in the
> Mason search, believes the punishment should be fixed dollar fines, not
> bills for state workers' time.
>
> "This is an essential service the state should adequately fund," he said.
>
> Woodward, of Colorado, said New Hampshire's image has been badly tarnished.
>
> "If people are going to come to New Hampshire and go take hikes and make a
> mistake and get billed, they aren't going to come to New Hampshire," he
> said.
>
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