[at-l] Full Shelters in the Smokies

[orangebug74@yahoo.com (Orange Bug)]

Well, the idea of the shelters and the cages was for safety for
flatlanders, and to help them go into the wilderness and see critters
from a good location. Then the Law of Unforeseeable Consequences came
into rule. Folks fed bears making more of a nuisance. Folks brought
food into shelters, creating mouse habitats. Mice carried bugs,
particularly hantavirus (detected but never contracted in the Smokies).

Hence for the past few years there has been a bit of a retreat and
retraining of shelter inhabitants. Bear cables - which are really mouse
cables to get food out of shelters. Removal of the cages in many areas
as the shelters are refurbished. Creating clearings for tenting near
heavily used shelters. Actively reducing the use of AT shelters during
peak hiking season - and banning dayhiker/shorttermer use of shelters
close to NFG.

Sorry it upsets you, but I've gotten the impression that the Park
Service is learning and adjusting to the real world.

Bill...

--- Leslie Booher <lwbooher@halifax.com> wrote:
> Then why in the Sam Hill did they put them there in the first place?!
>  This is new thinking, because they used to want us all safely tucked
> in behind the chain link fences so the bears wouldn't get us.  Lest
> you are in any doubt, this post just got my back up.  anklebear
> 

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