Matt Moneymaker addresses BFRO's National Park Service citation

On February 24th, BFRO expedition organizer Matt Pruitt was cited in Arkansas for not having a special use permit for camping in a developed campground in the Buffalo Reserve. The report was submitted by Chief Ranger, Karen L Bradford and she stated the following:

Buffalo National River (AR)
Leader Of Bigfoot Expedition Cited For Permit Violation

On February 24th, rangers received information from a concessionaire who reported that there were visitors in the park who were on a "Bigfoot hunting expedition." Rangers Billy Bell and Ben Henthorne proceeded to the Steel Creek Campground to investigate. After questioning numerous people associated with the group, they discovered that approximately 30 people had paid Matt Pruitt, who is affiliated with The Bigfoot Field Researcher's Organization, to lead them on a hunt for the creature. Several participants said that they had paid $300 to $500 each to be lead on a three- day expedition. Pruitt was cited for a violation of the regulation on engaging in a business without a permit or written agreement (36 CFR 5.3). Paid activities that do not have commercial use authorizations or special use permits appear to be on the increase on a nationwide basis and need to be on the radar of all park staff to insure that only sanctioned and permitted activities are conducted in the parks.

[Submitted by Karen L Bradford, Chief Ranger]

According to BFRO members who attended the expedition, there seems to be a misunderstanding of what permits were required in jurisdiction controlled by the National Park Service. To clear things up, one commenter got in touch with BFRO president, Matt Moneymaker and he passed this along to our readers:

Moneymaker is in Louisiana shooting a season 3 episode of Finding Bigfoot. I called him on his cell hone about this. He told me some things to pass along to you about the NPS citation in Arkansas, and he texted me with more of his thoughts on the matter.

From Moneymaker:

"National Parks and National Reserves (outside Alaska) are a small fraction of public lands. Much larger are the National Forests (controlled by the Dept of Agriculture). State Parks have much more acreage, collectively. There are also Indian reservations, and BLM lands, and a whole lot of privately owned lands (including formal trust lands) that contain active bigfoot habitats.

The National Park Service only controls the National Parks and National Reserves. All those places are deserve special protection, and the NPS does an great job at it. Technically, the organizer broke the rules of this National Reserve in Arkansas and he was cited for it. The NPS has every right to do that, and the BFRO supports them in their efforts to enforce their rules. All their rules are policy-based, and made in Washington, to ensure maximum protection of those areas while allowing maximum human access and enjoyment. There's a tricky balancing act between those two slightly competing public interests.

The 2012 BFRO Arkansas expedition was the very first time a BFRO expedition took place in a jurisdiction controlled by the National Park Service. BFRO expedition organizers have always been advised to avoid National Parks because the rules are so strict (e.g. you can't step off a designated trail). Fortunately there's a plethora of great bigfoot locations that are NOT in National Parks or Reserves. In fact there are many, many more of bigfoot areas outside the National Parks and Reserves than inside them.

The organizer of the 2012 Arkansas expedition thought he didn't need a special use permit to camp with his group in a developed campground in the Reserve. It was a reasonable assumption under the circumstances. He made that assumption after carefully reading the Buffalo Reserve's web site for information or guidance about special use permits for a group that wants to camp in one their developed campgrounds, especially when the participants are individually paying the fees for their own camp sites. Nothing on the Reserve's web site addresses that scenario.

Moreover, the expedition organizer's girlfriend reviewed the Reserve's web site and determined that no permit was needed for a group of that size doing the activities they were going to do there.

A reporter recently spoke with a spokesperson for the Buffalo Reserve office. Apparently the office acknowledged that more information needs to be added to their web site to address these situations, it being 2012 and all.

It is not unreasonable to assume that the web site for well protected piece of public land, like a National Park and Reserve, would list ALL the prohibitions associated otherwise normal, no-impact, group camping activities.

There's nothing wrong about the NPS citing the organizer, and there's nothing wrong with the head office alerting all the other NPS offices to what happened. Now they will all update their web sites to provide instructions or guidance to those who want to obtain permits for paid group camping activities. That needs to happen. Until then it won't be difficult at all for other expedition organizers to avoid lands controlled by the NPS.