Threats to Forests - Recreation

Recreation  

Once upon a time, in the mountains, over a pass, west of a city, there was a beautiful 4000 acre lake surrounded by forest and above-timberline-peaks.  The lake was the first place the clean cold snowmelt water settled.  Trout loved it.  People enjoy a lake like this for its beauty, to renew their spirits, to catch a fish, to change their routine, to meet new people.  It’s called recreation, and it is important, look at the money and effort people put into it, that shows how important it is  - sort‘a.  

Forest recreation, like any other kind of recreation, going to the movies, watching football, attending a symphony, or whatever, requires facilities.  In the case of forest recreation the facilities likely involve, roads, parking lots, restrooms, campgrounds,  boat ramps, bike trails, hiking trails, horse unloading ramps, ski areas, snowmobile parking, even places to just sit and look.   Most recreation facilities have been planned and designed by some forester and landscape architect.  These kinds of facilities are necessary to help people enjoy the place and protect the natural resources (water, soil, scenery and wildlife) from the polluting things people seem to trail behind them.

When just a few people came to our mountain lake for a weekend they did fine, finding a place where they could pull off the road, sit up a tent and walk to the lake.  They’d fish, play in the water (but not much, it is cold), they would walk around in the woods and have a good time.   More people came.  Trash and waste became problems.  Campgrounds and toilets were built to control the problems.  More and more people, more and more campgrounds, boat ramps, trails, outdoor theaters for nature talks, traffic signs.  The lake and around the lake became crowded.  Rules.  Law enforcement.  It wasn’t as pristine as it once was, but more people were enjoying it.  All this happened on public land around the lake.

Evening along the Marias River

There is also private land near the lake, including some shoreline.  Some people who had been camping at the lake for years decided they would buy land and build a vacation home.  “No Trespassing” signs went up, second and third cars were left outside at the vacation home, wire fences enclosed small lots.  Here and there a house in the trees was painted pink, or robin egg blue, or yellow - all good colors, besides, there were no rules about forest aesthetics and development.  Along with the no rules there was no central sewage system, septic tanks and leech fields handle the sewage, but with rocky soils they don’t always work the way they should.  Waste made its way, underground, to  the lake.  The lake’s water became less clear, water plants grew under the surface.  Campgrounds, cabins, businesses, homes and vacation homes generate mounds of trash.  A land-fill dump was needed, and established, but because there was not a large population there was not enough money to maintain it properly.  Once again waste went into the ground water and moved toward the lake.

There were the shopping areas and scattered stores, they all needed signs to direct customers to their businesses.  The more colorful and contrasting the signs are to the green forest and blue sky the better it was at attracting attention and neon lighting was best of all.   No one seemed to ask the question, “Is this what we really want here?”