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Disclaimer: I re-read this post, and it's so long that if you wish to skip to the next post, I'll not be offended. A.R.]
Welcome to ExPo, Carlisle. You'll find a bunch of die-hard, stimulating, off-highway travelers here. You'll not regret having initiated this thread, as controversial as it may be. The good thing is that all of this dialog is good.
I read the entire thread this afternoon and was trying to decide whether to reply then or think about it for a while when Diana, my expedition partner for 46+ years, alerted me that dinner was ready. Knowing that it was to be elk stew (I didn't harvest this one. A friend did.) with parsnips, turnips, our own organically-grown Yukon Gold spuds (I did harvest.), plenty of parsley, and red wine, I decided that my response could wait a bit…maybe two bits.
First of all, I rarely, almost never, boycott a business owing to its affiliations, unless their connections are ethically or morally wrong. Ergo, I have BF Goodrich tires on three of our five vehicles, regardless of…..well, you know. Back in the ‘70s' I did boycott grapes, even though I felt the gesture was fruitless. (God, I can't believe I'm going to leave that pun alone!)
I happen to be one of these persons who does not EVER vote the party line. I've voted for, and campaigned for, Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarians. I choose the candidate, not the affiliation. I look at every road-closure from both sides.
In the ‘70s I joined a bunch of folks in an effort to defeat the paving of a road into the Los Padres National Forest. The decision to pave this track was to enable “more persons to enjoy the backcountry”. I sided with my mentor, Paul Squibb, who wrote a lucid, compelling editorial in the
Santa Barbara News-Press (CA) in which he stated, “You can't pave a road to get away from people.”
The coalition against this paving was a mixture of Sierra Clubbers, Auduboners, 4Wders, ranchers, hunters, and just-about-any-kinders.
We lost.
The road was (is) paved. More folks got into the ‘backcountry'.
Jonathan H has already written the solution. If all of us who care for our freedom of roaming the dirt roads of this country don't coalesce, then we will lose the ultimate battle against the pressure of humanity.
It's not a question of losing a specific area to ‘wheeling'- or ‘expedition'-travel. It boils down to people-pressure. We can't allow the constant pressure on our beloved backcountry without some measures set in place to mitigate this pressure. We'll have to have areas set aside where no motorized vehicle is allowed, and some of these areas may be those in which we have enjoyed our past privileges. That's sacrifice.
I don't know. Maybe it's owing to being in my seventieth year. Maybe I'm beginning to see that the “Big Yellow Taxi” travels a two-way street. (Apologies to Joni Mitchell.)
You really “…don't know what you've got ‘til it's gone”…and that goes for both sides. If we lose the wildernesses, they're gone. Period. If we lose the open roads, they will be gone as well. (On this, I have not seen any new roads opened, only existing ones closed.)
I'm willing to sacrifice, though, in order for our granddaughter to experience “wilderness”. If losing some roads that I've enjoyed ensures that Marley, or her children, will have the opportunity to experience that wilderness, then so be it. I'll die with a clear conscience.
We've traveled extensively on dirt roads throughout North America. I could not begin to give you the number of days/nights spent with backpacks, in tents, around campfires, extricating ourselves from predicaments (yeah, my fault). Nor the pounds that we've carried up peaks, into swamps, around pitches. But I will confess to this. If it ever comes to the point when we must make a decision to side with open roads or wilderness, the wilderness will win, hands down.
It's not because we're in our sixties, we've already had the experiences. We want the country to last, and humanity is pressuring us to abandon that goal.
We just returned from a grand four-day trip into the Owyhee Uplands, partly on a BLM “By-Way” and partly on side tracks off this by-way. There were several places where we were forced to put the Xterra (with attached Horizon trailer) through and over some rather testing ruts and boulders that lay in our path. I don't object to rock-crawling as a sport, but with us, it's only part of the trip.
Again, to re-visit the issue, we may have to give up some of our highly-valued backcountry in order for any of it to survive. We don't like it. We'll miss it, assuming we have a few years left in these bones and muscles, but we're willing to see it locked out if it means that it's the only way to keep this country for all those who may wish to visit it in the future.
I asked Ansel Adams once what he thought was the most destructive force on the wilderness, and we had been talking about floods and fires. He replied without hesitation, “People.”
He was correct. The forces that we as a population have placed upon our open lands is enormous.
I can look out my office window here on the Snake River Plain and see BLM. We can leave our driveway and drop onto a track and drive until our fuel tank on the Xterra is empty and never leave public land. That, to me, is amazing. There will be some who might read this post and not fathom what it's like to be able to do that.
If I knowingly purchase materials from a company that has a “steel-trap” mindset, that is does not look at both sides of issues, I hope that I take the time to point out what I believe to be the importance of looking at both sides. I don't always do that, but, more often than not, I do—sometimes much to the dismay of the company. I would not have accepted that rather perfunctory reply from Mr. Foley of REI.
“We have been criticized by some off-road vehicle enthusiasts for our
support for specific wilderness designations.” –
“Yes, Mr. Foley, and what were those criticisms?” I might have replied. Not to be combative, but to be clear on the issue.
The bottom line is that I don't feel that REI's decision to give to any organization (again using the moral/ethical measure) is a reason for not purchasing from them. After all, we eat mostly organic products, but that doesn't preclude us from occasionally purchasing a Big Mac®.
Thanks for bringing up this issue. It's an important one.
Allen R.
