Public Lands Getting HAMMERED by Crowds

[Bosterson]

Not only are there not enough trails, there aren't enough roads: here in the West, access to the mountains (for the average public) is limited to a relatively few number of paved state highways that cross mountain passes—so huge numbers of people are funneled into those relatively few access points. And of course now I'm seeing crowds even on unpaved forest roads that climb into the mountains from the foothills.

Wait, so are you saying a solution to your concerns about the "wildness" of the forests is to build more roads that go through the forests?

If forests are crowded on weekends but not on weekdays, can it really be said that the forests are generally or usually crowded? If forests near a metro area (which usually are not National Forest designated) are more crowded than forests farther from a metro area, can it really be said that most forests are generally crowded everywhere? Etc. Rhetorically speaking, these sound like personal problems having to do with your personal schedule and driving radius - not with the state of forests in general.

I think it's one thing to discuss specific environmental impacts - like roads, dirtbikes, trash, logging - but you can't conflate those with subjective disapproval about whether people are enjoying the outdoors "correctly." There are definitely a lot of people out there, and they are definitely tromping all over everything and creating user paths and stepping on flowers and leaving trash and TP everywhere - but the kid playing Gameboy in the middle of the forest is harming literally no one.

[Chip Down]

Your consistent position so far implies the imposition of new rules and regulations that far exceed those already in place. You aren't very clear about how you expect these would be enforced, but the level of control you are advocating would absolutely require levels of enforcement which would also far exceed what the Forest Service is able to provide.

There's some validity to that argument. It's annoying when gov adds another level of bureaucracy, when they can't really implement the current web of red tape. And it's all too easy for us to demand more services, without considering the funding.

But (you knew there was a but coming, right?) when I see U$F$ paying teams of people to stand at Dog Mountain and turn away hikers without tickets, as if it's a ride at Disneyland, I get a bit miffed. Just one little example; I could go on. I'd like to see them stop hassling people who just want to go for a walk in the national forest, and do more to stop the degenerates who think trashing the forest is a suitable hobby.