It might take the form of websites that create or aggregate recreation content voluntarily setting up geofencing of posts and asking land managers for approval before allowing content to go live. It could involve better integration of messaging on conservation ethics into aggregated content. It might even include paywalls that direct a portion of fees toward the local authorities that have to deal with the mess created by these websites. Someday, I believe there will be a court test of a website that's causing damage to a sensitive location that requires money to repair. A court could find the website liable for the costs. We don't know, but I'm not going to argue this any more. We'll let time take its course, and see what happens.
What I do sincerely hope is that the people flocking to these places and those who don't care if that happens think deeply about whether they should give back more in the way of building trails, restoring habitat, lobbying government, and advocating for more public land. Far more effort is spent posting to Instagram to stoke one's ego than is devoted to protecting and improving the places people claim to love.
Charley wrote: ↑May 21st, 2019, 4:26 pmI'm inclined to agree with FX: the problem is a dirt problem, not an internet problem. If this were managed by the Park Service, and our trails and public lands were fully funded, the overuse problem would be solved, and solved by on-the-ground solutions, instead of Constitutionally impossible regulations on digital speech.ElementalFX wrote: ↑May 21st, 2019, 2:10 pmNo, I am not against regulating things like fire, motorized vehicles, etc. But you are comparing apples to oranges. The internet is not something that you do in nature, not is it a method of access into wilderness.chrisca wrote: ↑May 21st, 2019, 1:22 pmThe Internet is another technology no different from others we've needed to regulate to protect natural areas from exploitation. It may not be regulated today to protect natural resources, but that's because the technology is new, just as the others were at one time. The day will come, and it must, when there are sensible guidelines to protect natural resources from damage from this technology.
People are going to find the nice places and they are going to publicize the nice places. The solution is to harden and protect the nice places. It's totally possible and will be totally necessary (I suppose you could say it already is necessary).