Dear HCN,
I appreciated the issue
on recreational impacts, but have a question regarding Mindy
Sandler’s essay on her experiences as a wilderness ranger (HCN,
9/4/95). Being a former backcountry ranger myself, and having
noticed an increase in litter, fire rings, etc., in my wanderings
this summer, I read her account with some
interest.
Sadly, much of what she writes rings
true, yet nowhere in her piece do I find a mention of cows. My
question then is, who came up with the title, “And you thought cows
were bad … ?” You see, I do think cows are bad. And even though I
abhor the negligence of backpackers whose trash I carry out, I
think it would be very difficult to make a case that recreational
impacts are anywhere near as great as the overall impacts of
grazing.
Certainly some areas such as Moab,
Utah, could be cited as an exception to this, but overall, the
impact of a several-hundred-pound bovine who eats the vegetation,
spends most of its time along riparian corridors and fails to bury
its feces under a rock is much greater than many, many hikers and
climbers.
Recreational impacts are locally severe
and should be censored, yet are largely aesthetic in their impacts.
The impacts of grazing on Western North America are widespread,
pervasive, and ecologically
devastating.
Tim
Hogan
Boulder,
Colorado
The writer is a botanist.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Cows aren’t bad, they’re terrible.
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