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Written by Scott Silver
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Tuesday, 12 September 2006 |
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Perhaps I'm easily offended. I am, admittedly, one of the few wilderness activists who speaks disparagingly of 'Leave No Trace' accusing them of being a recreation industry booster that serves to shift the focus of management discussion from "wilderness character" to "biophysical resource impacts." I actively oppose the supposed wilderness legislation known as "CIEDRA", accusing it of being an Economic Development and Wreckreation Act .
Within Wilderness I would no more welcome being casually approached (without damned good reason) by someone wearing a uniform, than I would welcome being attacked by blood-sucking mosquitoes.
As for large groups in Wilderness, the biggest problem with large groups is their size. Much like LNT shifts the discussion from solitude to impact, there are some who shift the discussion from group size to group behavior.
For the past 15 years, I've headed an organization that thought it necessary to say the word "Wild" before the word "Wilderness" -- which some think is most odd. I find it appropriate to put Wild before Wilderness and find it increasingly necessary to do so with every passing day.
Pasted below are the first paragraphs of what I found to be an unusually offensive article that addresses the issue of how we can all be more "responsible wilderness tourists." Correct me if I'm wrong, but Wilderness really isn't the place for tourists nor should Wilderness be turned into a place such a place --- as many now suggest.
Scott
"In short, the very scarcity of wild places, reacting with the mores of advertising and promotion, tends to defeat any deliberate effort to prevent their growing still more scarce." --Aldo Leopold
The Wild Wilderness Raceway exists.
This logo is real.
http://www.boiseweekly.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A206562
POSTED ON AUGUST 30, 2006:
Minding Mother Nature
A forest ranger tells us how we can be better wilderness tourists
By Rachael Daigle
In 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt designated 1,947,520 acres in
central Idaho as the Sawtooth Forest Reserve. The area is now known as
the Sawtooth National Forest, and in 1972, Congress set aside 756,000
acres within the forest as the Sawtooth National Recreation Area
(SNRA). Since the introduction of Rep. Mike Simpson's HR 3603, titled
the Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act (CIEDRA), the
SNRA has been the hotly debated center in an environmental tug-of-war
that has split even conservation groups into opposing camps.
Politics aside, the SNRA is one of Idaho's most popular wilderness
destinations for both residents and out-of-state tourists, and while
the ultimate fate of the SNRA has yet to be determined in the political
arena, the comings and goings of tourists each year take their toll on
the forest. Boise Weekly spoke with Dan Dusic, a ranger in the Sawtooth
National Forest's SNRA to ask about human impact on the area and how to
be responsible wilderness tourists.
BW: What do you do as a forest ranger?
DD: I'm the Wellness Education Coordinator. And as part of my job, I do
have regular ranger duties where I go into the backcountry and make
contacts with people who are in the area. But my contacts are all
educational contacts. I don't write tickets per se, but instead, I
teach people how to do things right. As the education coordinator, I do
the education programs for people in our backcountry and those last
about an hour. We do it for church groups, Boy Scouts—any large group
that enters the wilderness—and we just teach people about Leave No
Trace.
<continues>
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 12 September 2006 )
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