Re: [pct-l] LNT and individual responsibility

[Owen Kittredge <owenk@quiknet.com>]

Charlie

Good job, well said.
I am also involved with scouting and received flack from outdoor enthusiasts
regarding scouting.  I think scouting get singled out because they are easily
identifiable as a group.  Additionally typically scouting brings younger people
to the outdoors and no matter how much you inform them it takes a while to get
the message to sink into a 12 to 13 year old.  What I find ironic about the
criticism of scouting is that back in the 1960s when the backpacking movement
was starting the Boy Scout Handbook and Fieldbook where only materials available
regarding hiking/camping and my Scoutbook gave advice on how to minimize
impact.  Additionally in 1973 when I was in collage went on a dorm backpacking
trip and my fellow hikers wanted to bury their trash.  I convinced all to
carryout thier trash but one who proceeded dig a trash hole and ended up digging
up someone else's trash.  Anyway my point is its that it is mentally lazy to
single out a group and blame them for all the problems.

Owen K

Charlie Thorpe wrote:

> Hello Joanne -
>
> I have waited a bit to answer your last message in this thread.  Your
> attitude has surprised me and I wanted to do a little thinking before I got
> up on my soapbox <g>.  I have enjoyed reading about your organized and
> disciplined approach to getting ready for your thru-hike.
>
> First off, let me apologize for mixing Scouting into the LNT thread.  I
> just sent you the "Scout version" of my LNT email series because I had it
> handy.  I am sorry that you haven't yet run into some of the fine
> outdoorswomen that both the Girl Scout and Boy Scout programs have
> trained/inspired.  I am not as familiar with the Girl Scout outdoor
> training (my daughter chose to participate in the Boy Scout Sea Explorer
> program), but I have shared the trail with quite a few of their graduates.
> I am familiar with the programs within Boy Scouting that have included 10's
> of thousands of young and adult women among those encouraged to love the
> backcountry...two of the graduates have shared my household...and my
> canoeing/backpacking gear <g>.
>
> I developed the LNT series because I became concerned that there was NOT a
> very high level of understanding of (or concern for) the damage that we
> distance hikers are doing to the backcountry that we all love to visit.
> After posting the series on a number of email lists related to distance
> hiking a few years ago, I got so many responses from folks who were
> concerned that Scouts (Boy and Girl) needed this type of info that I did up
> a set of messages that were slanted toward Scout leaders (I am a volunteer
> Scout trainer).
>
> Presenting LNT training to Scouting audiences takes up a lot of my training
> time.  As I hope I make clear in my "LNT 1- Why me?" message, I am
> heartsick at the realization that Scout groups no longer enjoy the
> universal reputation of being expert and caring outdoorsmen.  BTW, this
> isn't just my personal observation...it comes from a LOT of conversation
> with a LOT of managing agency folks.
>
> Sonofagun...I have reason to feel almost the same way about the distance
> hiking community <f>.  I don't have quite the same emotional attachment to
> distance hikers as a whole as I have to the Scouting movement...the former
> is a very loose collection of a great bunch of people, but I feel that the
> latter can be (if done right) a significant positive part of providing
> quality growth for our young.  BIG difference.
>
> I do, however, hold distance hikers to a pretty high standard...I do think
> that we are (and should be) a group "with significance" <g>.  Our influence
> often seems to go beyond our own interests...the very nature of a distance
> hikers quest strikes a responsive chord in many outdoor folks and often it
> is assumed that we have somehow come to learn all those neat "outdoor
> secrets" that surely must exist out there <g>.  Like it or not, distance
> hikers set a role model for a lot of backcountry users.
>
> As happened with Scout groups, I was very disappointed to discover that
> distance hikers are not considered to be very expert minimum-impact
> backcountry users at all.  Especially thru-hikers.  Major bummer.
>
> The LNT series is an effort to get folks thinking about us each taking
> individual responsibility for our own actions in the backcountry.  I really
> like the whole LNT educational program because of its very simplicity...we
> do the damage...we learn how NOT to do the damage.  My personal approach to
> LNT training (in whatever venue) has been:
>
> help folks understand how we unavoidably do damage each and every time we
> visit any backcountry ecosystem;
> help start (nudge) the process of reflection that might someday lead to
> development of a personal "wilderness ethic" that would lead to a desire by
> each of us to NOT do that damage;
> help provide some simple practical tips on how to help minimize our impacts
> (continuously updated by current research results from the recreation
> ecologists); and to
> help encourage all of us to share what we have learned about how to care
> for the backcountry with other users...in the hope that we CAN reach that
> threshhold where we can truly start to make a difference.
>
> If you are already there, GREAT!  If you ain't...read the messages.  If you
> don't like the messages or the approach, help me fix them.  Don't give up
> on the chance to have significant help come from us backcountry
> users...instead of being forced by the always caring (but sometimes
> hamhanded <g>) managing agencies...or of everybody just giving up.
>
> Are we talking "environmental political correctness", here?  Interesting
> idea.  I sure hope not...I have been taken for a bigtime fool if it is!  To
> me it's mud simple:
>
> we are impacting the backcountry beyond its ability to recover at an
> accelerating rate;
> the managing agencies have not been able to turn it around with all their
> rules and restrictions;
> there can be no question that our "wild" areas are very finite (we ain't
> making any more!);
> and, ABSOLUTELY most important for me,
> my own personal actions are the only thing that I have total control over!
>
> Wow...kinda puts the monkey on my personal back!  I can't blame ignorance
> (I read the messages <g>), I can't blame those green-shirt bureaucrats, I
> can't blame the permit systems, I can't blame the hoss-folks, I can't blame
> anybody else...it's MY damage that I am responsible for...
>
> That is all that LNT is.  It ain't religion, it ain't the way to undo all
> the damage that has been done, and it ain't "eco pc".  Sorry, it is a
> little too important and a little harder to ignore than that.
>
> So...YES, this list is exactly the right place to talk LNT!  I do truly
> believe that the PCT is a fantastic national treasure.  I have had the
> pleasure of meeting some outstanding PCT outdoorsmen/women...both on the
> trail and on this list.  I have also seen a very fragile trail (MUCH more
> fragile than the AT, for example) that will be seeing vastly increasing
> useage...by many who have nowhere near the minimum-impact skills needed to
> protect the PCT.
>
> >From what I have observed so far (only 400 miles <g>), the CDT is even more
> vulnerable.
>
> Sounds to me like we better get started with LNT...unless you have a better
> way to solve the problem.
>
> Trace No Leaves,
>
> - Charlie II  AT (MEGA'93)
>              PCT (Mex@Can'95)
>         Chipping away at the CDT
>
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