news story / By Heidi Walters

Segway to the Marsh

You may soon be sharing the trail with gyroscopic ‘personal mobility devices’

(Sept. 24, 2009)  Jon O’Connor’s a little bemused that some people are freaking out on a local birding blog about his proposal to run Segway tours in the Arcata Marsh and the Arcata Community Forest.

Yes, Segways. Those electric gizmos you stand on and lean where you want to go.

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“I wish they’d talk to me,” O’Connor said on Tuesday afternoon at his office inside the Far North Climbing Gym on 10th Street in Arcata. When he saw the blog chatter, he said, he got “just a sinking feeling. It sucked to be trying to do something positive for the community and hear that people were upset about it.”

O’Connor is the chief executive officer of North Coast Adventure Centers, a co-op whose mission is, as their motto says, “connecting the North Coast community, one adventure at a time.” The NCAC has formed partnerships with local businesses such as Revolution Bikes, Redwoods and Rivers Rafting Co. and the Far North Climbing Gym — where O’Connor has his office — to take people on mountain biking, rock climbing, tree canopy and river adventures. The company also trains and certifies outdoor adventure guides.

“Right now we’re developing a program with [Humboldt County’s] Court & Community Schools to have vocational training for kids, some of them just coming out juvenile hall, where one day a week they can come to the gym and rock climb, and once a month they can take part in an adventure. We’ll try to sign kids up to become nationally certified guides, and hopefully send them all over the world to work.”

O’Connor has had a contract with the City of Arcata for about two years to run a ropes course in the forest, in a “public-private partnership.” In April, the Arcata City Council approved NCAC’s proposal to expand the agreement to run a pilot tour-by-Segway program.

About 10 days ago the birding people got a whiff of this plan. On Sept. 11, Tom Leskiw posted a detailed message on the Northwest Cal Bird blog titled “Scooter Use at Arcata Marsh.” He worried that motorized vehicle use is not allowed in the marsh, so Segways might violate that regulation; that Segways are silent and pedestrians might not hear them approaching from behind; that Northwest Adventures and their clients would be the only ones allowed to take the scooters into the marsh and forest; and that the marsh would cease to be a wildlife “sanctuary.”

A fellow birder responded, “Criminy! What a stupid idea. Is Arcata selling its soul to corporate interests?”

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