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[RC] Responsible Stewardship - Melissa Margetts Ms. KittyBarbara, Sorry to have upset you by agreeing with and adding my own input about human impact, but your last post made me even more opinionated about peoples underestimation of our impact on our environment. I personally was one of 28 biologists that did three different 20 day trips down the Colorado River on scientific research expeditions to determine suitable habitat for the reintroduction of the Native North American River Otter that had historically been in the Grand Canyon prior their extirpation due to trapping by MAN, pollution of the river water quality from MAN, the building by MAN of the Glenn Canyon Dam that altered the depth, silt factor, turbidity, and water temperature of the river, and the introduction of non-native aggressive trout species by the park service in order to attract more tourists and anglers to raft down, and fish on the river. Those trout have now brought the native species of Humpback Chub and other species to the endangered list. Every year thousands of people raft down the river, camp, hike, pee, fish, etc., let alone, as you yourself acknowledge, the invasion of the introduction of tamarisk that's now choking out other vegetation. And the waiting list for permits is over five years long for every expedition. NO ONE can tell me that man has not impacted that native habitat. So to get back to relating this to the "problem and solution to bears on the trail" topic, I still believe that the most responsible reaction that we, as major wilderness trail users, can take is to choose NOT to over-react and create a problem when there really isn't much of one out there. I'm sure the percentage rate of riders and horses that have been attacked and killed by bears while riding on the Tevis trail is rather....Uh...low. And even if someone is dumped if their horse spooks by seeing one, it probably isn't as high as those who would do the same when seeing a biker. And I wouldn't suggest tracking, tranquilizing and relocating a mountain biker either, (though I know some equestrians would like to.) Melissa Margetts=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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