Leaving Your Mark.

When I first read the title of this thread, I thought the subject was about introducing the uninitiated to the wilderness, mentoring kids...that sort of stuff. I think I like that idea better.
 
22-rimfire said:
I have no problem with clear cutting as long as the erosion issue is somewhat addressed.
Click to expand...
Clear cutting is horribly damaging to the ecosystem and in so many ways above and beyond erosion issues. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on pretty much everything LOL. ;)
 
In the areas that I am most familiar with (Middle Atlantic Area and SE US), if selective cutting is done in a mixed hardwood forest, eventually all that is left are culls. It is better to cut everything over a certain minimum size. Replanting in the SE is not effective as the naturally produced trees tend to out compete the planted ones. Maybe different in your part of the world but I suspect you are dealing primarily with a mono-culture. It is a different story with the vast acreages owned by the timber companies that do in fact do the mono culture (usually pines) and they are essentially farmed to be cut when they reach a certain size and replanted.

Yeah, we will have to agree to disagree on a lot of these issues. Trees are a resource to use and exploit. They grow back.

Added: I am all for setting aside areas not to be logged however. The National Parks do this pretty well. But eventually even in those areas, some harvesting of trees eventually makes sense, but would be done on a case by case basis. I however do not favor the exploitation that was done in the Eastern US in the early 1900's where essentially entire counties of wooded forest (usually mountains) were cut within a few years. I have seen pictures from that time and I didn't like what I saw. It boils down to a management issue.

I did find the comment made by someone that they don't go out into the forest to see initials cut into a tree humorous and a gross exaggeration of reality. I don't know anyone who would actually go out into the woods to look for tree grafitti. I like things kept pretty natural overall.
 
Last edited:
Yesterday I went to go out to the site my big shelter was at...and got to see what leaving a bad trace is like. :(
Some jackass--I think I know who but lack absolute proof--ripped down the whole thing except for the two supports and crossbeam. The jerk even tore down the very handy bench I had made supported between three trees, and screwed up the fire pit to no end.

If that wasn't enough, there was an empty alcohol bottle there along with a bunch of MRE packaging and other assorted plastic crap.

It used to have a "Magical Grotto" type of energy to the place, where one entered into a peaceful area of open space after struggling through thorns and other obstacles; it now has the energy of a garbage dump. :mad:

I was (and still am) rather annoyed. I had a fire for a bit, but my heart wasn't in it and I had to use a tea light as sustained tinder to get it going due to not having prepared it properly...I was just too pissed off in the beginning.

At least the mosquitoes got a feast once the DEET had washed away due to all the heat and humidity induced sweat, so I guess I did my part to feed nature.
 
People do stupid stuff for no reason at all. I feel your pain. People (mostly kids) kill cats and dogs (pets) for sport. That really bugs me.
 
Moosez45 said:
I been known to cut a small V notch in tree branches I have to pass under on the trail, or stream.

I like going back years later and seeing it there.

I pass by cairns all the time, even in some rugged terrain, deep in the GSMNP and Cherokee Forest. If you think no one's been there before, chances are they have.

Moose
Click to expand...

Not sure if I'm in, on or near the same part of it as you, but I end up in there from time to time myself. The place is huge and the closest point is about 6 miles away from me.
 
stabman said:
Yesterday I went to go out to the site my big shelter was at...and got to see what leaving a bad trace is like. :(
Some jackass--I think I know who but lack absolute proof--ripped down the whole thing except for the two supports and crossbeam. The jerk even tore down the very handy bench I had made supported between three trees, and screwed up the fire pit to no end.

If that wasn't enough, there was an empty alcohol bottle there along with a bunch of MRE packaging and other assorted plastic crap.

It used to have a "Magical Grotto" type of energy to the place, where one entered into a peaceful area of open space after struggling through thorns and other obstacles; it now has the energy of a garbage dump. :mad:

I was (and still am) rather annoyed. I had a fire for a bit, but my heart wasn't in it and I had to use a tea light as sustained tinder to get it going due to not having prepared it properly...I was just too pissed off in the beginning.

At least the mosquitoes got a feast once the DEET had washed away due to all the heat and humidity induced sweat, so I guess I did my part to feed nature.
Click to expand...

Man I hate that for ya! I've got a spot I visit from time to time & basically the same thing has happened. The Douchification of nature.
 
Natives have been leaving their marks for thousands of years around here. Paintings\carvings etc. However, the older I get, the less I want to see evidence of other people in the wilderness areas.
 
Rock totems in hard to access areas are about all I leave. I sometimes feel that even that, is probably not too cool. If you absolutely have to leave your mark, there are geo caches virtually everywhere.
 
... also from the site http://www.groundspeak.com/ an excerpt from the history of geocaching

"In May 2000, the U.S. government turned off Selective Availability, a feature which limited the accuracy of GPS signals for civilians. Within 24 hours, Dave Ulmer placed the first geocache (at that time called a "GPS Stash") and posted its coordinates online. Within three days, two people used their own GPS receivers to find the container and shared their experiences online ..."

This site also has information on waymarking, cache in trash out ...
 
I have some friends that are into geocaching. Sounds like a great excuse to get outside and a good way to "leave your mark" without uglying up the place. I'm a bit on the fence with the whole marking issue. I guess I take into consideration the motivation for the mark and how it was done. I have less of a problem with rock piles and small carvings in certain places than I do with some douche spray painting a gang mark all over everything, but I guess when you get down to it the motivation for carving your name in a tree, writing it on a stall with a marker, or spray painting a dumpster are all pretty much the same. People want to tell the world they were here. I don't recall ever doing it myself but I can understand wanting to leave your mark, at least in a tasteful and appropriate way.

It would be better to leave your mark on history where people will remember and be inspired than to carve "I wuz here" somewhere where only 5 people will ever see it and maybe some of them will wonder who you were for about five minutes and forget.
 
bigghoss said:
It would be better to leave your mark on history where people will remember and be inspired than to carve "I wuz here" somewhere where only 5 people will ever see it and maybe some of them will wonder who you were for about five minutes and forget.
Click to expand...
This reminded me of the studies that demonstrate a link between narcissism and use of Facebook and Twitter, with Facebook = Mirror and Twitter = Loud-hailer. That intrigues me given what I was wondering about gratuitous behaviour. In days of yore a signal for others; blaze trail or even tramp code “husband dead, soft touch, free lunch can be got here”. Now, me me me, take notice of me. I woz ere and that should be important to you.
 
baldtaco-II said:
This reminded me of the studies that demonstrate a link between narcissism and use of Facebook and Twitter, with Facebook = Mirror and Twitter = Loud-hailer. That intrigues me given what I was wondering about gratuitous behaviour. In days of yore a signal for others; blaze trail or even tramp code “husband dead, soft touch, free lunch can be got here”. Now, me me me, take notice of me. I woz ere and that should be important to you.
Click to expand...
Why can't these sociopaths be happy with FB & Twiiter? Must they still deface trees & rocks?
 
mtangent said:
Why can't these sociopaths be happy with FB & Twiiter? Must they still deface trees & rocks?
Click to expand...
My guess is that they broadcast by any available means. I'm sure in the future some of them would want to fire lasers projecting their names up into the skies, right above the Coca-Cola logo.
 
Last edited:
Not me. Funny. Other than when I was a kid, I haven't carved my initials or marked up any surface. Not really important to me. As a kid, the initials weren't so much for other people but for myself so I could see them years later and how they stood the test of time. But I can understand people doing it and I don't get particularly excited about it. I enjoy visiting old grave yards from time to time.
 
Interesting thread. Many of the northern reserves that I have been to indicate their presence about a half mile away. It's the rusting snow mobiles, plastic bags full of rotting diapers and shotgun hulls everywhere that give a heads up. Funny how it only seems like a southerner like myself was bothered by the huge tangled, rotted old net that I found along a rocky shore and out into the lake. I even mentioned the net to the mounties that said they could do little about it because of local politics. And people scream about clear cutting practices............ I pick my battles these days.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top