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[pct-l] Thru-Hikers and cans (was Scary bear story & nothanging food)
At 09:53 AM 7/26/04, Mike Saenz wrote:
>But when the rubber meets the road (or the boots hit the trail?), when
>these laws are passed, we as citizens are obliged to comply with them.
The bear can rules are NOT laws that are "passed."
They are administrative rules imposed by the Forest Managers for their
forests. There is no way to "vote them out" or change the rule via the
normal legislative process that we learned in Civics class.
Depending on the "rule" there may or may not be a review process and a
comment period, but in the end the Forest Manager can pretty much do
whatever he wants within his own forest, without much oversight from the
USFS region, or from Washington DC.
About the only recourse a citizen's group has is a lawsuit, if they can
find a law that the Forest Manager's rule is breaking.
For example: a good argument can be made that small town politics in Bishop
California, with old alliances and feuds have more to do with Inyo NF
regulations on Pack Outfits, than sound forest management practices.
Also, the whole Bear Can debacle can be traced back to a relationship
between the Inyo NF wilderness manager, and her counterpart in SE/KI
National Park. Once the personal decision had been made by those two that
bear cans were the only acceptable method of protecting food in the
backcountry, no amount of logic or argument was going to change the mandate.
Since SE/KI and Inyo are the principal powers in the Sierra Interagency
Black Bear Group, bear cans are here to stay in the whole Sierra.
Have Fun, all IMHO.
Hiker