[at-l] Trail Conservation.

[Bob Cummings <ellen@clinic.net> (Bob Cummings)]

"How can a trail that is only 50 ft off the road ... or has road walks ...
be considered wilderness?   The trail is hunted on ... logged in Maine, and 
utilized in a number of various ways..."

The trail is not logged in Maine, at least not legally. But long stretches of
the corridor are very narrow, so you can see logging in places -- especially
where the trail weaves to near the edges of a narrow corridor.

 To the more central question, the Appalachian Trail is not wilderness by any
 definition of the word that makes sense to me. But it is as close to wild as is
 possible in the east and some of us continue to fight to keep intrusions of
 civilization away and to take advantage of opportunities to add buffers that
 will increase the wildness.

 I agree fervently with Henry Thoreau when he said, "In wildness is the
 preservation of the world...."

 This will be a greatly diminished planet if we destroy the vestiges of wildness
 that remain. If at times this puts me at odds with what trail communities think
 is best for them, so be it.

  Obviously, there's sometimes a difference between what communities think is in
  their best interest and their true best interest. Why my town ousted me from
  public office after 12 years and even refused a chance to correct their error
  a year later!

  Weary