<< Excuse me while I put on my headband and sandals and pick up my guitar and
sing... "Don't it always seem to go, you don't know what you've got til it's
gone. They paved paradise and put up a parking lot." :-) >>
Put'em on bro.... I have to agree with you 100%. I scares the hell out of me
when folks start in on "we shouldn't be regulated....it's our right to do
this....it's my land too!" True enough, it is your land, but it's mine
too!...and I want at least some of it to remain in working order!
Moon, I lived on the NC coast for years. I almost cry when I go back now
after just 20 years. I don't object to anyone using the beach. I can even
live with responsible 4 wheelers doing so. But what happens when 10,000 of
them decide it's their right to go 4-wheeling on the beach. It gets to be a
mess pretty quickly. Like I said, I don't have problems with people using
resources like this carefully....but at some point, there has to be
regulation....perhaps restricting the number of daily users...I don't know.
Like everything, there are tough choices.
Loggers....I shouldn't even start here! I see the effects of clear-cutting
almost every day in my work. But, logging is a fact of life and my computer
is sitting on a nice wooden desk! That doesn't mean that we should accept
logging of old growth forests! These few left should be left alone...end of
story! There are other sources of wood out there.
Around here, environmental groups like to butt heads with the Forest service
over timber harvest. It usually gets them nowhere! When we have problems with
the way something's being done, we try to talk to them. We suggest better
times of year to make cuts (not when the madtoms we're working with are
spawning!) We make suggestions as to certain areas that should receive more
attention....more care. We ask that if they have to cut a road that it be
done in the least damaging way at the best time of year (ie...not in spring
when heavy rains will wash mud down on spawning fishes!). You know
what....more often than not, they're receptive to suggestions! Not many
reasonable folks are saying NO MORE LOGGING. That's just the cry the logging
industry likes to promote.
And about all this being a waste of time anyway because we're all
doomed........you may be right! Probably are!....but I don't have to think
like this. I don't want to be the lamb being led to slaughter! I'm going
kicking and screaming! And if I can help protect a given stretch of river or
help save an endangered species (even if just forstalling the eventual!), I'm
gonna do it. If for no other reason than it makes me feel good!
Better step off my soap box before I get in (more) trouble!
j.r.
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