One needs to be careful about how one talks about this as it is easy to come across sounding like: "I know and love these places and I want to keep them nice for myself even though they don't belong to me, so I don't want anyone else to know about them." This is of course a completely bogus stand, because anyone who goes to any of these places is vastly increasing the number that use it beyond zero, which is the least damaging number. If you are now going to a camp site you are now part of the problem. Watertrails are a solution to an existing problem, not the source of a new one. People are going to these places now. And even now new people are learning about them. And every additional person that learns about it is adding to the problem. Whenever someone goes to one of these places to find it already occupied, they will move on and make a new place. Before you know it, the whole water front is abused and over used. People are going to come, regardless of how much guidance they receive. They are going because people have sea kayaks and other boats and they want to do trips. This is the source of the pressure. Maybe the problem is kayak builders? The water trail idea started in Maine with the Maine Island Trail Association http://www.mita.org/about/history. It has served to mitigate abuse. The association gets permission from landowners and promotes careful use of campsites. By working with landowners in a responsible way it has opened up more islands to use. There are still unsanctioned landing spots that get used, but now there are more places where the owner is happy to have visitors. MITA also works with public lands to help protect landing sites and keeping people away from unsuitable locations. The Maine coast is very close to major population centers and I have been paddling the coast of Maine for over 20 years (since before MITA came into existence), and while there are more kayaks on the water now, the only islands that are being overrun are those that were being overrun 20 years ago. But, at these places the impact is not as bad as it used to be. MITA also works with outfitters and guides to control how much use specific sites get. It is possible a BC trail network will not work in the same way MITA has, but in reality, most people are lazy and don't get out to the really nice spots even if they know they are there. The people who are of a mind to go to the remote places are doing it already. A good guide book can serve to spread these users out over a wider area. A well run watertrail system can reduce the impact. Nick On Mar 6, 2009, at 4:28 AM, MATT MARINER BROZE wrote: > Gathering information on campsites and widely distributing it will > have the > effect of drastically increasing the number of paddlers using and > abusing the > limited resources. Nick Schade Guillemot Kayaks 54 South Rd Groton, CT 06340 USA Ph/Fx: (860) 659-8847 http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/ *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Mar 09 2009 - 09:57:19 PDT
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