Herbie
Rendezvous Conspirator
Chuck, you can bang on about cognitive dissonance all you want, but that doesn't make your argument stronger, nor does it make trying to practice a LNT approach void. There's no dissonance in having the goal of minimizing one's impact in all aspects of backcountry travel. Maybe you aren't actually familiar with the tenets of Leave No Trace, but you should understand that the philosophy fully encourages getting into the wilderness, but asserts that there's a right and wrong way to do it.
To address your list specifically:
1) "Offroading damage" - LNT advocates for travelling and camping on durable and well-traveled surfaces, wherever possible. The goal is to confine the damage to limited areas. Stick to the trail, camp in areas previously used by others, etc. If you're off trailblazing and bashing through foliage then sure, you're creating damage, but most people don't actually do that.
2) Re: Human waste - As part of the principal of proper waste handling, again the goal is to minimize damage. If you're in a lightly travelled area, the old methods of burying waste and packing out the paper is usually acceptable. We travel in more popular areas, so we pack out all the waste.
3) Firepits - Again, the principal is to minimize the damage. This means using established firepits where possible. We travel in the backcountry but definitely don't create these either - we use an elevated container since in our area there is a fragile ecosystem that is damaged by heat and fire scars last literally for decades. (Moreover, in our favorite parks building a firepit is against the law and will earn you a hefty fine.)
4) Oil leaks - My truck doesn't leak. If it did, I'd fix it before I went to the backcountry. If you're offroading and knowingly leaving oil behind, you're the kind of "enthusiast" who will get the rest of us locked out of areas.
"Crazy over things that don't matter in the big picture" is exactly the kind of self-centered thinking that causes a build-up of damage. One guy throwing coffee grounds out isn't a big deal. Two guys knocking over a Joshua tree while out wheeling is a recoverable blight. It's the accumulation of literally hundreds of thousands of people using an area that is the issue. Mt. Whitney is a great example - part of getting a hike-through permit there now involves proving you have a waste-management scheme. Why? Because there is literally so much human traffic that there are parts of that route where it became impossible to bury one's crap without running into someone else's older crap. No one person did anything "wrong", but the route is too popular to absorb the traffic if everyone doesn't do better.
The phrase my local rangers use is "Loved to death". They're happy so many people love to come to their parks - they just wish we were all better stewards.
Here's my ultimate litmus test for how to behave in the back country: Would you act the same in front of a ranger as when you're alone? Even if it wasn't strictly illegal in the area, would you make your ranger a cup of coffee then toss out the grounds while they looked on?
I'll continue to use my paper filters and pack out my waste.
To address your list specifically:
1) "Offroading damage" - LNT advocates for travelling and camping on durable and well-traveled surfaces, wherever possible. The goal is to confine the damage to limited areas. Stick to the trail, camp in areas previously used by others, etc. If you're off trailblazing and bashing through foliage then sure, you're creating damage, but most people don't actually do that.
2) Re: Human waste - As part of the principal of proper waste handling, again the goal is to minimize damage. If you're in a lightly travelled area, the old methods of burying waste and packing out the paper is usually acceptable. We travel in more popular areas, so we pack out all the waste.
3) Firepits - Again, the principal is to minimize the damage. This means using established firepits where possible. We travel in the backcountry but definitely don't create these either - we use an elevated container since in our area there is a fragile ecosystem that is damaged by heat and fire scars last literally for decades. (Moreover, in our favorite parks building a firepit is against the law and will earn you a hefty fine.)
4) Oil leaks - My truck doesn't leak. If it did, I'd fix it before I went to the backcountry. If you're offroading and knowingly leaving oil behind, you're the kind of "enthusiast" who will get the rest of us locked out of areas.
"Crazy over things that don't matter in the big picture" is exactly the kind of self-centered thinking that causes a build-up of damage. One guy throwing coffee grounds out isn't a big deal. Two guys knocking over a Joshua tree while out wheeling is a recoverable blight. It's the accumulation of literally hundreds of thousands of people using an area that is the issue. Mt. Whitney is a great example - part of getting a hike-through permit there now involves proving you have a waste-management scheme. Why? Because there is literally so much human traffic that there are parts of that route where it became impossible to bury one's crap without running into someone else's older crap. No one person did anything "wrong", but the route is too popular to absorb the traffic if everyone doesn't do better.
The phrase my local rangers use is "Loved to death". They're happy so many people love to come to their parks - they just wish we were all better stewards.
Here's my ultimate litmus test for how to behave in the back country: Would you act the same in front of a ranger as when you're alone? Even if it wasn't strictly illegal in the area, would you make your ranger a cup of coffee then toss out the grounds while they looked on?
I'll continue to use my paper filters and pack out my waste.
