L
longbow51
Guest
" Amid all the cheerleading to create more access to the backcountry, building more trails, filling the rivers with more boaters, monetizing visitors every way possible and having state tourism bureaus spending many millions annually in advertising to promote our public lands, many of which are already crowded, few are reflecting on the ecological toll being exacted. ....
I was on a governor's task force in the late 90s (one of the few "lay" members) charged with addressing stream crowding. Kind of fun, with ideas like "Pass a law making it illegal to write about Montana rivers", but that pesky First Amendment! Ultimately, nothing much came of it, just like the current efforts to limit crowds on the Madison. The outfitter's lobby is just too strong. Same thing with hunting outfitters; much harder to find ranchland where locals used to hunt that isn't leased to an outfittting group. How many would crowd the rivers if you actually had to learn to fish on your own, without a guide showing you the fly to use and where to cast? And, now too, much of public hunting land is outfitted. Hard for the DIY guy with a few hundred bucks in his pocket to compete.
The author of the article is spot-on. Again, Abbey warned us of this 50 years ago. By monetizing our resources ("Arches National Money-Mint" Park) we have set the future. As he put it so aptly (from memory) "deaf to thunderstorms in the mountains but able to hear a dollar bill drop on motel carpet".
We didn't listen then, and, I'm guessing, won't listen now.
I was on a governor's task force in the late 90s (one of the few "lay" members) charged with addressing stream crowding. Kind of fun, with ideas like "Pass a law making it illegal to write about Montana rivers", but that pesky First Amendment! Ultimately, nothing much came of it, just like the current efforts to limit crowds on the Madison. The outfitter's lobby is just too strong. Same thing with hunting outfitters; much harder to find ranchland where locals used to hunt that isn't leased to an outfittting group. How many would crowd the rivers if you actually had to learn to fish on your own, without a guide showing you the fly to use and where to cast? And, now too, much of public hunting land is outfitted. Hard for the DIY guy with a few hundred bucks in his pocket to compete.
The author of the article is spot-on. Again, Abbey warned us of this 50 years ago. By monetizing our resources ("Arches National Money-Mint" Park) we have set the future. As he put it so aptly (from memory) "deaf to thunderstorms in the mountains but able to hear a dollar bill drop on motel carpet".
We didn't listen then, and, I'm guessing, won't listen now.
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