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[at-l] LNT 12- Smokey's revenge!

Hello All -

This posting is about the LNT Principle:

                 Minimize Use and Impact of Fire

This discussion always seems to get folks "where they live" <g>.  There are
a lot of ways to approach this subject, but I would like to try a
"backwoodsy" story this time thru.  Let's suspend sanity for a while and
join a bear cub as it takes on the job of becoming a "spokesbear" for a
major government marketing campaign.

Imagine a little bear cub left clinging to a burned-over tree after a big
forest fire had zapped thousands of acres of his wild home.  This cub is
taken to a vet to treat his burns and then to a zoo to recuperate.  This
cub has a LOT of time to think about recent events, is sore all over,
smells like a barbecue, and is completely hacked off!

He is a VERY sharp little bear and proves it by quickly memorizing his
lines when they audition him for the marketing spokesbear role: "Remember,
only YOU can..."  He is SO clever, in fact, that he hatches a nefarious
plot while he waits to grow into his campaign hat and blue jeans.

He becomes a jovial and stern "Prevent Forest Fires" spokesbear by
day...and starts to exact his terrible revenge by night!  He cleverly makes
use of the "after hours" fax machines, phones, copiers, and networked
computers to manipulate his many media contacts, plant suggestions with
movie/TV screen writers, and whisper in the ears of LOTS of popular authors
and cartoonists.

Slowly...and insidiously...he plants the idea in our culture that we MUST
always have a campfire when we go to the backwoods!  We all start to
believe that the only way that we can cook, keep warm, or dry things out is
to use a fire.  We start to get scared of the "things that go bump in the
night" and try to create a safe-haven by staying within the light-ring of a
big campfire.  We begin to think that the only way that we can socialize in
camp is to poke coals around a campfire.  We even come to believe that fire
can purify our presence in the backwoods by consuming the nasty stuff we
don't want to carry out.

NOW...slowly but surely...the bitter bear gets to see his horrible revenge
come to pass:

the popular camping sites develop fire pits...many with multiple pits...
some with so many fire pits that there is scarce room between them;

the fire-ring and backstop rocks get thoroughly fire stained...probably
lasting for tens of thousands of years;

the soil under and near the fire pit is sterilized...dead;

the amount of ashes and charcoal nubbins builds up and up and often gets
piled out of sight behind nearby veggies...hanging around for a LONG time;

partially and unburned trash (aluminum foil, especially) litters the ground
around the fire pits;

half-burned nasties (rotten garbage, critter carcasses, bloody items, sour
grease, used TP, etc.) get left in the fire pit for the next campers to
play in;

smoke from the fire takes turns making the fire-users uncomfortable and
too-often drifts over to strangle those innocent of any fire building;

fire-light blinds folks from any chance of seeing the beauty of the
night-time sky and the quiet moon-lit backcountry;

fire-light and smoke scares away any interesting and exciting night-time
critters that the fire users might have gotten to see or hear;

fine ash from the burned garbage combines with other human leavings to
deep-dust the camp area with the unmistakable sour smell of long human use;

limbs, standing dead trees, and even live trees are broken off, pushed
over, grubbed out, and chopped/sawed up for fire wood;

the constant need to feed the fire strips all organic materials from an
ever-widening radius of destruction...slowly turning the whole area into a
sterile desert;

and, as if all the above isn't enough,

efforts to burn modern man-made materials (different plastics, etc.) slowly
turn the fire-pit and ash piles into (mini) toxic waste dumps...traced with
nice things like poisons, carcinogens, and even forms of nerve gas!

Hooboy...a diabolical bear, indeed!  The devastation in our camp sites is
ample proof that his mean-spirited plot is working...but maybe... just
maybe...we can use his own "image" to foil him after all!  Whenever we hear
his deep voice saying those famous words of his, we just need to make one
little change in our minds...:

        "Remember, only YOU can prevent CAMP fires!"

And everybody lived happily ever after...on an AT where the entire trail
looked like that beautiful section in Connecticut <VBG>.

I would like to think that the above kinda-grim little story might help us
all to start thinking about taking a giant ethical leap...to NOT using
campfires in the backcountry at all!

I would be happy to bet that there are more than a few camping experts on
this list that can help us all come to better understand the expert outdoor
skills that allow us to eat, stay warm, dry our gear, be safe from
critters, keep bugs away, and have fun socializing...all without fire!

EVERY source that I have studied rates "use of campfires" as the single
biggest source (by far!) of backcountry impact!  This has just GOT to be
one of our backcountry behaviors that we can change just a little...and the
backcountry gets a LOT in return <g>.

Be thinking about shunning campfires...but, sometimes the devil just MAKES
us want to build one <VBG>.  We can look at some ways to at least minimize
the damage from fire-use in "LNT 13- Flic a Bic"

See you there!

- Charlie II  AT (MEGA'93)
             PCT (Mex@Can'95)


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