Re: Web ruining remote DV spots ?
Posted by Curious on January 20, 2004 at 12:14:24:
In Reply to: Web ruining remote DV spots ? posted by Zombie on January 19, 2004 at 13:55:25:
I think that the Internet has caused higher usage of remote sites and cabins. If there is a certain percentage of the population that vandalizes, litters or commits crime then the number of such people have increased at these sites. This is not true just for Death Valley and its environs. Many of the places in the San Bernardino Mountains that I have frequented for some time, now have litter and some vandalism. The once beautiful Angles National Forest has areas covered in litter and graffiti and has a dubious history in regard to body dumping.
The NPS is not really the problem, just a handy scapegoat. The NPS is not out dumping trash! Look the entrance to Berdoo Canyon outside of Joshua Tree National Park, it is full of graffiti, trash, old washing machines and rusted hulks of cars. It does not improve until the park boundary! The edges of our remote lands are becoming garbage dumps as a small percentage of people ruin them!
Though these are public lands, the public on the whole is not always caring or educated enough to use them properly. We’ll not be able to bar the public from public lands but we should as a society find a way to educate all of the people as to how to properly maintain these lands as a long term goal and hopefully correction to a growing problem.
Until then, keep the secrets. It is the only thing that protects those sites!