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[RC] How tree hugging hurts the environment/trying to keep endurance focus - rides2farBTW - if environmentalists are tree huggers, is there a term to describe those on the other side of the debate? To Angie Fura From Angie McGhee (trying to avoid confusion here) Though this does not apply to you...since I know *you* spend time outdoors, I have had a major problem with people who call themselves "environmentalists" but very seldom set foot off concrete and fall for word games like "Wilderness" designation; They cause a heck of a lot of trouble for those of us who actually use and care about the outdoors. I used to call myself an environmentalist, and in the true sense of the word...wanting to take care of the environment in the way I think is best...I still am. But I do not use that word any more because it's been taken over by many who have what I think is a dillusional concept of what that stewardship entails. We got a new teacher at our school and I was in charge of writing a little bio of her for our bulletin board. She identified herself as "vegetarian, environmentalist" (she looked more like something out of Vogue). Geez. So, I just started asking her questions about was she for Wilderness designation, how much did she know about who maintains the trail system, how often she volunteered, the natural balance of predators & prey etc. She was totally clueless. As endurance riders we need to do what we can to educate people. They *may* go to a national park once a year...probably in a SUV. Step out onto groomed walkways and convince themselves they are environmentalists. Then they throw their support behind some really radical people out there who would love to lock us all out of the public lands. Personally, I'm very thankful for hunters to control the deer population so we don't have to reintroduce wolves, cougars and grizzlies to do it. We aren't going to disappear (no matter how bad some of these folks wish humans would) so the best we can do is *stewardship*. If the Nature Conservancy makes lands completely off limits to humans, how long will humans appreciate nature? There's an area near where I live where I have mentally laid out a possible endurance course. However, the Nature Conservancy bought a small strip of land along the Tennessee River and they let *nothing* go across it....just ask the man who built a huge log home on his land just past it and now cannot get electricity since they won't allow a right of way. Groups like this to me are extreme and a threat to endurance trails. I'm not automatically *for* anything like clearcutting, or stip mining just because I am not a member of the Nature Conservancy or the Sierra Club, I can care without agreeing with them. Sooo, if we can't be "Environmentalist" how does...."Environmental-realist" sound? :-) Angie McGhee (Looking forward to the Southeastern Trails Symposium where I'm sure I'll learn more) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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