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From: Steve Marriott (s.marriott@blueyonder.co.uk)
Date: Thu Dec 12 2002 - 17:21:29 GMT
Next message: Steve Marriott: "Effects of Mountain Biking"
>
>
>
> I agree with Dr. Evans in that the impacts of some
> recreational activities are oftentimes over estimated by
> members of (perceived) competing recreational activities
> (illustrated in this case by the conflict between
> hikers/equestrians and mountain bikers). This can have a
> skewed effect on natural resource management policies and
> end up allowing for a favoring of one type of activity over
> another by resource managers even when there is no
> justifiable reason for doing so. Further, Mr. Vandeman
> "muddies the water" (please excuse the pun) of his own
> environmental argument even more by including horses in his
> groups of "low impact users" while attempting to demonize
> mountain bikers. Horses require larger trails than do
> single-track mountain bikers, regularly leave horse fecal
> materials in streams and river crossings and can impact
> surrounding vegetation by animal grazing during rest
> periods on the trail, not to mention the increased erosion
> caused by horse shoes tramping up steep hills and on soft
> stream beds.
>
> In my own research on the international whitewater rafting
> industry, I have seen similar incidents occur, both abroad
> and at home in the US, due to conflicts between groups such
> as fly fishermen and whitewater kayakers as well as between
> kayakers and commercial rafting. Statements used by
> fishermen against river use by kayakers in remote,
> uninhabited areas, have been focused on concerns that the
> kayakers, "scare the fish away, scuff up the bottom of the
> river and destroy habitat, pollute the rivers thus killing
> fish and fouling fish habitats, etc." are similar in nature
> to the rhetoric in Mr. Vandeman's email about mountain
> bikes killing off animals by way of crushing their burrows
> and regularly killing animals on the surface. The fact that
> he was using Off Road Vehicles as a proxy for mountain
> bikes is flawed in and of itself, since motorized ORVS are
> much more damaging to trails than pedal-powered mountain
> bikes are. I myself conducted research on local trails
> about 10 years ago looking at the difference between ORVS
> and mountain bikes and found large differences in scale
> between the two types of damage produced. Further, trying
> to use an example of the similarity between mountain biking
> and "bull dozer racing" as justification for overly
> restrictive management practices is another example of an
> over-exaggeration of one group's impacts by another and an
> example of vested lobbying by one group over another.
>
> In the whitewater arena, we have seen concerns for the
> impacts of kayakers on riverside flora and fauna be used as
> justification for restrictions of kayaker use of riverine
> space. However, when well-planned research projects have
> investigated the actual impacts of these groups on riverine
> vegetation, they have found negligible impacts if any (such
> as on the recently opened for kayaking Tallulah Gorge in
> GA) and in some cases have found an improvement of the
> environmental conditions (for example the research
> conducted on the Chattooga River in GA/SC). Since kayakers
> and rafters are in their boats 95% of the time during their
> trips, they do not in fact scuff up the bottom of the
> river, scaring fish and degrading habitats and thus lead to
> habitat degradation and declining fish populations. This is
> pure exclusionist rhetoric similar in nature to some of the
> statements made in the diatribe against mountain bikes.
>
> Additionally, kayakers have had their use of riverine space
> restricted based on other recreational group member's
> concerns of the social impact that kayakers would have on
> other user groups who may have their "wilderness"
> experience ruined by seeing a group of kayakers float
> through "their" wilderness space over the course of a hike
> or fishing trip. Aside from the obvious issues of attempts
> by one user group to exclude another out of a desire to be
> left alone in "their woods", this sort of reasoning has
> other flaws as well. In some cases, it has actually been
> highly beneficial for kayakers to be in the same areas as
> fishermen during periods of high water (which is usually
> the only time these user groups may come into contact with
> one another anyway). I can personally offer several
> examples of fly fishermen being saved from drowning in
> swollen rivers by kayakers who happened to have floated
> through "their space" at the time that the fishermen were
> drowning. Can examples of mountain bikers helping out
> hikers be found in the records of emergencies in natural
> lands as well? I am sure that they can if one looks hard
> enough.
>
> What seems to be a much more important issue is how to
> bring these groups that care for the environmental space
> that they all use together for the purpose of ensuring that
> these green spaces will continue to be preserved as
> natural, albeit recreationally used and potentially
> impacted, spaces for future generations to enjoy as well.
> Rather than focusing on their potential differences in use
> of the natural space, they should instead focus their
> energies on how to ensure that the space will remain
> natural space in perpetuity and not become re-zoned for
> large scale development purposes. That is the major concern
> that all of these groups will increasingly be forced to
> deal with and only through unity in voice can these groups
> defend their natural spaces from other much more
> consumptive development practices.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Will Van De Berg
>
> --
> William R. Van De Berg, MA, ABD
> Doctoral Candidate
> Department of Ecological and Environmental Anthropology
> University of Georgia
> Athens, GA 30602
> willvdb@uga.edu
> Cell: 706-296-6719
> Work: 706-542-3922
> Fax: 706-542-3998
>
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