"No gathering of fire wood"

[Damn_Animal]

The state parks in my area also have this sign and I have always wondered about it, like others have stated its never stopped us in the past from gathering wood for fires but still doesnt seem to make much sense.

 

[Planetcat]

Ok, I can usually swallow the bitter pill of cutting back on my camping, hunting, fishing, boating, dirt bike riding, and four wheeling to better the environment that I do those activities in. But I can't accept the fact that someone thinks that the amount of wood gathering campers do actually affects the overall population of beetles, termites, trees, etc. significantly. For crying out loud, fire danger's one thing, but in a campsite or designated camping area, that area is already shot due to human traffic anyways.

I have an idea, why don't we make extinct all the non-indiginous humans, and then the earth can be nice and peaceful just like it was during the dinosaur age where all animals cared about the welfare of other animals and lived in harmony. Sorry for the rant. I'm now going to gather extra wood on my hunting trip this weekend.

 

[Calebklyne]

where i live there are only a few backcountry sites that allow fires most you have to use a stove if you want hot food, but luckily the government spends tons of money flying wood into the sites that allow fires so that we dont have to be bothered to go pick deadwood up ourselves

 

[tholiver]

I camped at a state park in Missouri this summer , and it had a no gathering firewood policy.The reason ,I was told , is to keep people from cutting down trees.You also are not suppose to bring your own firwood beacause of the Emerald Ash Beetle. The only firewood allowed was bought from them.

Hmmm the suspicious part of me says this is at least in part a money grab. Captive audience told to "buy product from us or do without". Like travelling on a plane or going to a movie theater, you can't bring your own they want you to buy from them. This may be simple fund-generating for the parks.

I can understand fire-bans in certain climates or under certain weather conditions that merit them. Also i can understand not wanting campers cutting down living trees.

There might be a litigious angle to this as well, fear of being sued by campers who went a chopping and got squat by a falling tree or who chopped their leg instead,lol. And i've heard a few "i went looking for firewood and got lost" stories as well.

Remember a lot of car campers aren't the "sharpest tools in the shed" and are in the wilderness merely to commune with a six-pack, or a Doz box! Also the woods are convenient for them because they have lots of places to regurgitate those liquids later on without even having to clean it up. Sadly i knew a lot of people in high-school who liked camping strictly for the above reasons.