[pct-l] Thoughts on the ADZPCTKO thread

[carlito at gmail.com (Carl Siechert)]

> It appears from all the back and forth talk on the list that impacting the
> trail is not that important, it is just a small "casualty" in the needs of the

Admittedly, I haven't been able to keep up with all the PCT-L threads
in the last few days, but I haven't seen anyone say that impact to the
trail is unimportant. On the contrary, I would hope that most people
on PCT-L (and at ADZ) are very concerned about their environmental
impacts. The issue that has been raised, as I understand it, is
whether the ADZ contributes to the impact. ADZ serves hikers who are
going to be on the trail anyway, so it's not clear to me that the
kickoff per se contributes to impact on the trail and its surrounding
environment. Even the clumping effect would seem to have little
overall effect; what's the difference whether 100 people hike by on
one day vs. 10 per day for 10 days vs. 1 per day for 100 days--as long
as they're all observing LNT methods?

This seems to me to be a general PCT issue (or even a general
backpacking issue), not an ADZPCTKO-specific issue. Nonetheless, the
kickoff is a great venue for teaching low-impact techniques. From my
perspective, then, the kickoff can have only a beneficial effect on
the environmental impacts of hikers.
 
> Service.  Do I need more resources?  I asked the question of this forum if a
> LNT session was available at the KO.  I received no response.  The Leave No

Okay, here's a response: no, at the just-completed ADZ there was no LNT session.

> Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics has indicated that if the organizers of the KO
> would contact them and give them the dates of the KO, they could arrange for a
> traveling trainer to come to the KO and give a 1-hour session or whatever is
> needed on Leave No Trace.  The traveling trainers are free.  They asked that I
> make this offer to the organizers, who will take the next step.  If we don't

I think that's a great suggestion. Whom do we contact, and how?