Re: [Paddlewise] Commando Camping

Maribeth Sears wrote:
> 
> Nick Schade wrote:
> 
> >I have mixed feelings about the watertrails concept. I am a member of the
> >Maine Island Trail Association, the originator of the idea. I see the
> >service they provide as getting permission to use private islands.
> [snip]
> 
> I agree completely with all that Nick said.  I too am a supporting member of
> MITA, and I think they are doing good work.  They aren't really "selling"
> anything -- the membership fee is a mere $15 or so.  (They depend primarily
> on voluntary contributions of much larger amounts.)  One of the most
> important things they are doing, IMO, is to promote the idea of **voluntary
> member self-management.**  [emphasis added]

> I don't know anything about any other "water trail" organizations, and so
> can't comment on them.  I did read an interesting article in a recent ACK
> about a water trail project through Maine lakes to New York.  My biggest
> concern about these things is that they will result in heavier usage, and
> naturally I want it all to myself <g>.  . .  .  Of course, heavier usage
> *can* be good, if properly done, as it brings more people closer to the
> earth they live on and thereby *may* help save the place. . . .
> 
> Mark

Sounds like MITA may have hit on a reasonable balance in its approach to trail
management:  "... the idea of voluntary member self management ..."  As Nick
mentioned [I snipped that part], when a MITA-type system begins to restrict the
"locals" from their traditional haunts, resentment is inevitable.

Where I live, a couple of water trails have been proposed, and a couple of
sites for camping have been set up, albeit not in my county.  I am frankly
opposed to extending them into my neck of the woods, a little for the notoriety
they bring, but mainly because most of the area paddlers would traverse **is a
wildlife refuge.**  Our presence on the water in large numbers is counter to
accepted principles of wildlife management.

Yah, sure, there are compromises inherent in water trails, but I think
curmudgeon Broze (he is a 10 on the curmudgeon scale -- I'm only a 7) may be
watching an example of a misdirected water trail up in Puget Sound.  Or, could
be that population pressures would have brought things to where they are,
currently, independent of the existence of any formal water trail.

For a wonderful look at their water trail, check out Joel Rogers' picture book,
"Water Trail," Sasquatch Books, US$22, ISBN 1-57061-095-9

I equivocate about these things, because I can see their benefit in the face of
desperate land-use conflicts and an ever-booming population of paddlers (they
are the best of a compromised situation), **and** I have the "memory" of things
the way they used to be ... which, of course, I can't have any more.  Times
change.  Like Mark, "... naturally I want it all to myself. <g>"  At the root,
don't we all have a piece of that in our psyche?

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR
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