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Show New breed of recreationist offers hope for the outdoors Thanks to a new philosophy among outdoor recreationists, National Forests as well as other public lands may stand a fighting chance of becoming becom-ing cleaner and stayingbeautiful, according ac-cording to Mike Bergfield, recreation forester for the Vernal Ranger District of the Ashley National Forest. "The new idea challenges everyone to use a trail, campground, or wilderness with minimum impact," Bergfield said. "It's called 'minimum-impact 'minimum-impact camping.' As practiced in its highest form, it's also called 'no-trace camping.'" Keep America Beautiful, Every Litter Lit-ter Bit Hurts, and Woodsy Owl's "Pack It In Pack It Out" are familiar to nearly everyone. So the minimum-impact minimum-impact appeal is not entirely new-only new-only the approach is. Forest rangers and others are not suggesting to campers that they become experts, or "pros." They say that pros avoid littering, defacing trees, and throwing fish entrails into lakes and streams. The goal is to ieave a campsite in such a way that no one knows a visitor was there. Each year the Vernal Ranger District spends thousands of dollars in policing up camp areas. Often times campers leave their sites laden with bottles, cans and paper. Sometimes vehicle ruts and tent ditches have to be filled in. When too many rock fire-rings fire-rings appear, they must be destroyed and the ashes hauled off. These cleanup costs take a big chunk out of Forest Service budgets. The back-country on the Vernal Ranger District also becomes heavily heavi-ly littered as more and more hikers take to the trails and higher lakes. It is a difficult job to pack trash out of back-country lakes, 3 miles or more along a trail to the nearest pick-up point. With the tremendous surge of interest in-terest in camping and backpacking, forest users must all help out in leaving leav-ing clean camps and keeping "people impacts" to a minimum. Our forest resources cannot stand repeated careless use and still maintain a natural appearance that everyone looks for in the outdoors. The following suggestions for undeveloped area camping are endorsed en-dorsed by the Forest Service: Gather only dead firewood. Scatter Scat-ter unused firewood in the trees when you leave. Use existing rock ring fireplaces, rather than building new ones. Thoroughly police your camp area when you leave. Pick up the small pieces too, soft drink tab tops and cigarette butts. Where possible, choose well-drained well-drained rocky or sandy campsites. Stay out of wet meadow areas. Make camp 200 feet away from lakes and streams. |
