For the past two decades, the National Park Service has made sport of actively pursuing wingsuit pilots who choose to fly in national parks: night-long chases and stakeouts, multiple circuit appeals court cases, and a few unnecessary deaths. For BASE practitioners, being caught has resulted in prison time or probation, and always a federal permanent criminal record. In a recent three-year-plus court case that challenges whether BASE jumping has properly been banned per the Administrative Procedure Act, the Park Service attorney argued that there is no ban and that the government would welcome proposals for regulated flight from the BASE community, as well as permit applications, but has never received them. I was surprised to read this and set out with other members of our community to form a non-profit, draft proposals and permit applications, and collect documentation of decades of ignored outreach. Taking inspiration from how regulated legal BASE jumping works in the Lauterbrunnen Valley in Switzerland, we drafted a proposal on how regulated flights could work in Yosemite Valley and sent it to the National Park Service in May 2023. They ignored our proposal. We submitted 10 permit applications to various parks, and as a result, a memo was issued by Associate Director of Visitor and Resource Protection William Shott instructing the parks to reject our permit applications and provided a template on how to do this. Per the Shott memo guidance, every permit was rejected citing the need for BASE to undergo a park planning process, and also clarifying that no park has capacity to conduct that process. Emails from our organization to Mr. Shott have gone unanswered.Over the past year, we’ve requested meetings with superintendents from each park, and with the sole exception of Northern Cascades National Park, every request was ignored. As a result of the Shott memo, no superintendent has been willing to explore a park planning process or even take a meeting with our group. We’ve sought the help of my local U.S. Rep. Blake Moore’s office in encouraging the Park Service to work with us. The Park Service has ignored repeated outreach from his office. We’ve reached out to National Park Service Director Chuck Sams to request a director’s order declaring BASE an appropriate activity in the parks — this was how climbing was formalized in 2013 as an appropriate activity without ever undergoing a park planning process. Director Sams ignored that outreach. You can view all ignored outreach at baseaccess.org/outreach The National Park Service has never given a reason for its stonewalling. Hang-gliding, climbing, high-lining and commercial motorized rafting are permitted activities in the same parks we wish to explore with wingsuits. Commercial film projects such as Free Solo have even been permitted in the parks. We’re merely proposing maintaining current flight activities, which occur daily in the parks with little notice, while eliminating the risks and costs of criminalizing recreation. The National Park Service was created by the 1916 Organic Act, which was largely envisioned by the Wilderness Society non-profit. If you doubt whether wingsuit exploration is an appropriate activity in the parks, I leave you with this quote from the Wilderness Society founder Bob Marshall: “It is of the utmost importance to concede the right of happiness also to people who find their delight in unaccustomed ways. This prerogative is valid even though its exercise may encroach slightly on the fun of the majority, for there is a point where an increase in the joy of the many causes a decrease in the joy of the few out of all proportion to the gain of the former”Brendan Weinstein BASE Access Board President, Park City