Insightful and thought provoking posts...as always. Keep it up!
While I agree with your unassailable contention that moving a few thousand people from Arches to Natural Bridges would be a fruitless exercise, I don't think it's as simple overall as just giving the parks more resources to "keep visitors in check." While some significant percentage of humans will deal with the crowds, a meaningful percentage will not. That means they're destined for places like Bears Ears, often searching for the "less crowded" options.
In my view, what's needed is not only more resources but a thoughtful strategy on where to send people. That strategy can't, IMO, be successful by just sending more people to the already over crowded places. There does need to be some thoughtful development of "new" Engineer Mountains and House on Fires. The infrastructure from 30, 40 or 50 years ago just will never accommodate the amount of humans in the outdoors these days. So, in order to save the 98% of public lands to be relatively human free, there needs to be some new, more thoughtful development. The choices about where to send these folks aren't easy and are fraught with NIMBY issues. But a real, proactive strategy is needed or else we just let Google and Instagram manage our public lands.
Those uncrowded public lands of the backcountry are critical habitat for all the iconic critters of the West, who are increasingly hemmed in and threatened by humans. That is the main reason to not encourage people to go elsewhere than the popular parks. And the parks need to restrict and even ban cars. In the late 1970s Yosemite considered banning cars in the Valley, building big parking lots on the entrance roads and providing bus access. But the NPS brass didn’t have the guts to do it. Zion did and that helps a lot. If we charged the actual cost of oil and gas with carbon taxes that reflected the climate, pollution and health costs caused by burning fossil fuels, the cost would be about 4 times the present price per gallon…
Cognitive dissonance around fossil fuels, the purpose of water in the desert, and impacts of overcrowding recreation. Thanks for the round up on topics that occupy a lot of my mind! While I am continuously trying to reduce my reliance on oil, I gotta admit that I love me-some-coffee and feel it's a personal imperative to get out to the desert or mountains regularly (usually via car, not foot or bike). So I know I'm part of the problem... and hopefully solutions. Over a few blessedly damp days last week I was up in the Cascades on a trip involving popular and less popular trails. Along the PCT, I saw hiker after hiker. On the spur trail back to the car, I saw mice, squirrels, signs of bear, mushrooms - but only human footsteps. The trend in crowded recreation spots seems like it's gonna continue for a while. So I keep advocating for funding to support the influx to the Big 5-type parks AND supporting programs that convey the messages of Leave-No-Trace, navigation, and self-reliance to all who venture further afield. I'm still learning how to model such behavior and skills in culturally aware ways in the split-second moments one shares with other recreationists. The "authority of the resource" technique helps. Grateful that Bears Ears has an education center, the Inter-Tribal Coalition, Friends of Cedar Mesa, and others trying to share respectful ways to visit.
Great article on the water shortage in the western United States. The only thing I would say is that its not a water shortage but a water storage and distribution problem. In my opinion it is a great waste of trillions of dollars to wage endless war around the world. For that those trillions we could easily capture and transport water from the Midwest's major rivers and solve the problem.
Oh and yes what a perfectly beautiful picture of engineer mountain.
Hear! Hear! “Give the public land agencies a far bigger budget and adequate staffing so that they can keep the crowds in check. …let the less-visited places remain less-visited. …to try to alleviate crowds in one place by funneling them to another is folly.” I agree.
From your lips to God's ears? Well, no - only to our sainted "representatives" - God has nothing to do with the current mobs of people impacting "natural" places. To my mind, the need for amenities & crowds in a Park or any other wild place is just idiotic. The last Mountain Journal I got (online) had a cartoon which sure fits this picture: https://mountainjournal.org/cows-and-growing-alfalfa-to-feed-them-get-water-priority-in-time-of-severe-drought
Insightful and thought provoking posts...as always. Keep it up!
While I agree with your unassailable contention that moving a few thousand people from Arches to Natural Bridges would be a fruitless exercise, I don't think it's as simple overall as just giving the parks more resources to "keep visitors in check." While some significant percentage of humans will deal with the crowds, a meaningful percentage will not. That means they're destined for places like Bears Ears, often searching for the "less crowded" options.
In my view, what's needed is not only more resources but a thoughtful strategy on where to send people. That strategy can't, IMO, be successful by just sending more people to the already over crowded places. There does need to be some thoughtful development of "new" Engineer Mountains and House on Fires. The infrastructure from 30, 40 or 50 years ago just will never accommodate the amount of humans in the outdoors these days. So, in order to save the 98% of public lands to be relatively human free, there needs to be some new, more thoughtful development. The choices about where to send these folks aren't easy and are fraught with NIMBY issues. But a real, proactive strategy is needed or else we just let Google and Instagram manage our public lands.
Those uncrowded public lands of the backcountry are critical habitat for all the iconic critters of the West, who are increasingly hemmed in and threatened by humans. That is the main reason to not encourage people to go elsewhere than the popular parks. And the parks need to restrict and even ban cars. In the late 1970s Yosemite considered banning cars in the Valley, building big parking lots on the entrance roads and providing bus access. But the NPS brass didn’t have the guts to do it. Zion did and that helps a lot. If we charged the actual cost of oil and gas with carbon taxes that reflected the climate, pollution and health costs caused by burning fossil fuels, the cost would be about 4 times the present price per gallon…
Cognitive dissonance around fossil fuels, the purpose of water in the desert, and impacts of overcrowding recreation. Thanks for the round up on topics that occupy a lot of my mind! While I am continuously trying to reduce my reliance on oil, I gotta admit that I love me-some-coffee and feel it's a personal imperative to get out to the desert or mountains regularly (usually via car, not foot or bike). So I know I'm part of the problem... and hopefully solutions. Over a few blessedly damp days last week I was up in the Cascades on a trip involving popular and less popular trails. Along the PCT, I saw hiker after hiker. On the spur trail back to the car, I saw mice, squirrels, signs of bear, mushrooms - but only human footsteps. The trend in crowded recreation spots seems like it's gonna continue for a while. So I keep advocating for funding to support the influx to the Big 5-type parks AND supporting programs that convey the messages of Leave-No-Trace, navigation, and self-reliance to all who venture further afield. I'm still learning how to model such behavior and skills in culturally aware ways in the split-second moments one shares with other recreationists. The "authority of the resource" technique helps. Grateful that Bears Ears has an education center, the Inter-Tribal Coalition, Friends of Cedar Mesa, and others trying to share respectful ways to visit.
Great article on the water shortage in the western United States. The only thing I would say is that its not a water shortage but a water storage and distribution problem. In my opinion it is a great waste of trillions of dollars to wage endless war around the world. For that those trillions we could easily capture and transport water from the Midwest's major rivers and solve the problem.
Oh and yes what a perfectly beautiful picture of engineer mountain.
Hear! Hear! “Give the public land agencies a far bigger budget and adequate staffing so that they can keep the crowds in check. …let the less-visited places remain less-visited. …to try to alleviate crowds in one place by funneling them to another is folly.” I agree.
From your lips to God's ears? Well, no - only to our sainted "representatives" - God has nothing to do with the current mobs of people impacting "natural" places. To my mind, the need for amenities & crowds in a Park or any other wild place is just idiotic. The last Mountain Journal I got (online) had a cartoon which sure fits this picture: https://mountainjournal.org/cows-and-growing-alfalfa-to-feed-them-get-water-priority-in-time-of-severe-drought
John Potters cartoons are really great!