Spoiler: show
Other thoughts we've all likely considered:
• Charge fees for access and/or parking
• Require permits with quotas
• Build more trails
• Close overcrowded trails on some days of the week or times of the year
• Designate more areas as wilderness
• Advance warning by land managers that overused areas will be closed or visitation restricted if social media sharing isn’t curtailed, followed up with action if warnings are ineffective.
• The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics (http://lnt.org/) should add the Leave No Virtual Trace principle to its ethical code.
• Standard signage that’s used worldwide at sensitive sites to advise visitors to curtail posting on social media.
• Government and conservation groups could create an open database of areas with excessive impact. Social media companies could check the location of posts against the database and warn the poster of the risks and consequences of sharing.
• Public education campaigns to make people more aware of how social media sharing can damage habitat, and ask users to go back through their timelines and take down photos of overused areas to reduce future impacts.
• An aggressive campaign of charging access fees for overused areas to discourage visitation, with the fee dollars devoted to construction of new trails to spread out the impact
• Social media users can respond constructively when someone’s postings endanger wildlands.
• Voters and conservation groups can put pressure on elected officials to restore lost funding for land preservation and recreation development.
• Land managers should work with social media companies to enable donations from within applications when sensitive sites are being viewed to create a new funding source for protection and restoration efforts.
None of these ideas are perfect or desirable. But we are in great need of some creative thinking and discussion as we see around 100 people move to the Portland area every day, social media are accelerating the visibility of our region globally, and the restoration of the Gorge Scenic Highway Trail creates a world-class destination that will bring in large numbers of international tourists, each looking for an idealized nature experience that sadly, is no longer possible.
We need to consider that there have been many threats to wild areas: motorized travel, logging, litter, livestock, energy development, mining, housing, etc. When each was new it wasn't believed to be a problem but when it reached critical mass, the threat was recognized and required regulation to keep it controlled. Internet social media is quite possibly another one in this long line of threats. It's still early, but the Internet's rapid pace of advancement is forcing us to recognize the problem quickly and respond before it's too late. Hopefully ethics rather than regulation can be the solution, but history says otherwise.
Let fly with your thoughts. A ground rule: If responding with criticism, please make an alternative suggestion. I plan to write a longer piece on this topic. The discussion is bringing out some good perspectives on all sides. Please keep them coming.
I've recently (December 2017) been in contact with the Leave No Trace Institute. I will share their response in an upcoming article. Here's a graphic you can use when talking to others about Leave No Virtual Trace: More reading: "Loved to Death: How Instagram Is Destroying Our Natural Wonders." https://theringer.com/instagram-geotagg ... .evqrskkyg
Travel Oregon social media guide for the Columbia Gorge, specifically encourages sharing on social media: http://industry.traveloregon.com/conten ... ontent.pdf
Thanks,
Chris.