<< Weigh it up guys, what's the lesser of damages?... >>
Actually I've been thinking the same thing. One thing I know for sure is that
all the refrigerators, stoves, washing machines, dryers, sofas, television
sets, construction derbies, and hundreds of bags of household garbage weren't
left by someone riding in a jeep on a trail ride. I will admit that in some
areas a 4X4 can cause great damage, especially if it is used to plow new
roads. In my area we are somewhat lucky in that most of the area is sand
hills covered in scrub oaks and the many trials crossing through the woods do
not erode, they are sand, the rain just soaks in almost completely in most
areas. 30 years ago there was lots of great places to go out into the county
to camp, sight see, investigate unique ponds and swamps cut off from any
surface source of water for hundreds of years at least. I am sure I found at
least two new subspecies of fish in a couple of these sphagnum ponds lined
with cypress trees. but I figured why be in a hurry they would be
undisturbed, it was against the law to cover over wetlands! Low-lying areas
covered in sundews, Venus flytraps, and pond pines were common. Newts were
abundant, lizards, pygmy rattlers, even coral snakes in some areas. queen
snakes, king snakes, racers, the list goes on and on. I was rabid for getting
people to clean up after there selves. I lost several friends because the
quickest way to get dumped out of my jeep was to throw something out of it. I
wish I would have had a video camera at the time, small isolated swamps with
alligators, odd fish, and plants. Have you ever thought about where aquarium
banana plants are native too? Small ponds hidden in the piney woods were full
of banana plants. Tiny races of pickerel that only lived on the gambusia.
Every spring there were lots of salamander eggs, frogs eggs, and water
arthropods by the score. I was in love with the place! all this and the beach
and salt marsh too. Then development started, I honestly thought in a naive
young mind the law would prevail but it wasn't even a contest, Bulldozers,
graders, drag lines, and logger soon started covering up all the great
habitat with,,,,, You guessed it Golf courses, then came the housing projects
then the malls and acres of black top for parking. It seemed like almost over
night the area changed. the water table was lowered the ponds and swamps
vanished under fill dirt, One really large acid black water pond surrounded
by cypress was simply drained by cutting a ditch a hundred yards away and
channeling the water out into the river. This was really a big pond 2 or 3
hundred yards across. The dunes at the beach were covered with houses and
hotels until every bit of valuable land and then some was covered. My wife's
uncle refused to sell, he liked his 20 acres of Venus fly traps, sundews,
pond pines, water tupelo, and cypress. so they just lowered the water table
all around him. Now all he has is dry sand and hard black dirt. Even the
area's where some people drove 4X4's that shouldn't have driven there are
gone. Yes, I am a somewhat bitter and cynical old man. I learned my love for
the environment from my grandfather who was Cherokee, he was just a farmer
but he knew how to prevent erosion, knew better than to cut down all the
trees and didn't dump his trash in the river like everyone else did at that
time. I learned from him that nature can be used and still remain nature. But
nature can't compete with bulldozers, fertilizers and weed killers and
insecticides spread out over such large areas to make non native grass grow
so somebody can chase a little ball around in an artificial field and build
houses close by so he can play from his back yard while the wife shops in
super malls. Water runoff prom parking lots is a huge problem now and what
used to be soft acid water is now hard acid water due to all the marl dumped
at the edge of very creek and road. It really hurts to have tried so hard and
been brushed aside by money and influence. so yes I do bristle up a little
when some sweepingly say that 4X4's should be allowed to go off road. The
really funny part is all these $45,000 SUV's are so complex that getting
caught by the tide on the point and having to drive through tree feet of
rising ocean water would total them out if they made it at all. The only
thing they are really good for is showing your manhood while profiling around
town. Fording a small stream would spell their doom and how many of them do
you really ever see with mud on them? The 4X4 reached it's peak around 1976
to 83 closer to 76. after than they were just status symbols with nothing to
with real adventure (there a very few exceptions) but you can load up the
family trash and drive just beyond the highway to dump your yuppie garbage
because it cost a few extra bucks to go to the land fill. Lets face it we
all, everyone are damaging the environment just by being here. there are only
about 1000 times too many humans on this planet. Any volunteers to solve that
problem?
Moon
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