At Forest Service campgrounds near Jackson, Wyoming, piles of human waste and toilet paper were ubiquitous and so was litter. The smelly messes were spread throughout an area in the middle of public land frequented by bears, including at times the famous Jackson Hole Grizzly 399 and her cubs.
When talking with managers of state and federal public lands these pandemic days, two issues popped up: what to do about large amounts of human feces deposited in wild places and how to handle far too many visitors. Both issues have served as a wake-up call to both land managers and environmentalists about the downsides of recreation. “It’s like we’ve stared into a future that wasn’t supposed to arrive for a few decades,” said Randy Carpenter, who works with the community-planning organization FutureWest, in Bozeman. “The crush of people and the ecological impacts of rising recreation uses is right here, among us – right now – and it’s transforming the character of wild places.”
A paper published in the scientific journal PLOS One reviewed 274 scientific studies completed between 1981 and 2015 that examined the effects of recreation on a variety of animal species across all geographic areas and recreational activities. Kevin Crooks, a conservation biologist at Colorado State University, said given what we know now, “It might be time to establish limits on public access to protected areas and encourage changes in the behavior of recreationists.”
Though conservation groups continue to point fingers at logging, mining and ranching, they’ve been slow to acknowledge impacts from outdoor recreation.
Last winter, at a U.S. Forest Service meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, biologists noted that backcountry skiing and snowboarding were harming a dwindling, isolated herd of bighorn sheep. Displaying what can only be called a crass attitude, one skier was heard to remark: “Well, the sheep have had these mountains for 10,000 years. Now it’s our turn.”...MORE
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This will be interesting to watch. The enviros have relied heavily on the outdoor recreation industry to lobby for increased environmental designations on federal lands. Now we will watch as the enviros turn on that industry and move to limit recreation.
It will also be interesting to see where Senator Martin Heinrich ends up on this issue. He continuously cites the importance of the recreation industry when passing his legislative endeavors on wilderness, national monuments and wild & scenic rivers. I predict that at some point he will join with the enviros to restrict recreation. He has been in lock step with them for years, and will soon get in line on this issue.
1 comment:
This is a good description of the current state of our socialistic outdoor recreation. Recreationists have long demanded and the agencies have provided the recreating public with entertainment sites and sanitary facilities at taxpayers expense.
I remember the environmental activists (Sierra Club, NRDC, Wildlife Federation, etc.) attacking the ranching and logging industries for joy of putting all those families out of business. When they succeeded they rejoiced and partied and congratulated themselves for having succeeded in harming other people. Then they discovered a new enemy to aim all those Marxists community organizing tricks at. There was (and still is) vicious attacks by the backpack only enviros against the mountain bike riding enviros and both groups team up against the ORV folks.
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