Dear HCN,
I have worked in the
backcountry of Dinosaur National Monument for four years and have
had numerous encounters with groups from the Colorado Outward Bound
School. They have been using this area for a number of years and
frankly, it shows. Mark Udall of COBS says they “thoroughly
instruct … students to diligently avoid cryptobiotic crusts and
to travel and camp on slickrock” (HCN,
6/27/94).
This has not been the case in Dinosaur.
The route that Colorado Outward Bound travels (used almost solely
by them and rarely by other visitors) is now highly visible from
viewpoints in the monument as a clear trail through cryptobiotic
soils.
Because their trips include “solos,” there
are spiderwebbing side trails where students fan out, trip after
trip, year after year. Observation shows that this web of side
trails has gotten more extensive over time. “Half the amount of
instructors and students’ would certainly reduce this
impact.
I always ask every group I encounter if
they discuss group size as a facet of minimum impact camping.
Invariably eyes glaze over and the conversation drifts off; this
concept is apparently not to be seriously
considered.
It doesn’t matter how clean a camper
one is; 10 clean campers do more damage in these fragile
environments than six. If Colorado Outward Bound is truly committed
to ethical wilderness education, they need to stand behind reduced
group-size limits.
Barbara
Zinn
Green River,
Utah
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline More people, more damage.
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