According to the Wilderness Act of 1964, Wilderness is “land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, …which generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of mans work substantially unnoticeable.. Well, I can for sure appreciate that and I fully support it and am thankful for it. But in the past few decades, that idea has become loosely and inappropriately applied over and over again and now includes places marred by roads, mines, buildings, and other permanent man-made scars that will never go away. The current Wilderness proposal being pushed (Google Central Coast Wilderness Proposal) currently includes areas dotted by existing roads and other man-made features. One of the proposed Wilderness areas in the Carrizo Plains National Monument even has large, graded, and leveled areas were oil wells had been, including all the trash, roads, and junk left behind. That does NOT meet the above definition of Wilderness. Let us keep the Wilderness wild!!! And lets keep open the areas that already have roads and such. This ensures a quality Wilderness experience for those that seek it while also keeping available those miles and miles of existing and historic dirt roads open and useable to all. Here are some pics of a recent trip into one of our own local Wildernesses, created in 1984. Topo maps still show the trail as a jeep road. The parts of the trail that were not grossly overgrown and terrible to hike in were just as tore up and bulldozed as they were the day they put the road in, decades ago.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 04:45:16 +0000
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