Wilderness, a sportsman's view

Man has become part of the landscape as much as the absence of man was in historical times.

[Randy]

Interesting article. The more I find out about wilderness the less I support it.

[educator II]

Randy,

I'm not sure what you mean?

Do you want to eliminate wilderness, hunters or access to the wilderness? Somewhat tongue in cheek but that seems to be the choices.

[Mike]

Wilderness is a myth. Human beings have lived on the land in NM for at least 13,500 years. Nowhere is "untrammeled." The land is criss-crossed with human trails (foot-roads) that have been inplace for millennia. For uncounted generations human beings have cared for, tended, lived off and with the land.

There is no "balance of nature." Darwin shot that theory down 150 years ago. There is only the balance that we humans place upon the land, as the keystone predators, the torch bearers, the stewards of creation.

We are the Caretakers. It is our birthright and our birth-reponsibility. To abandon that is to abandon who we are, what we are, our heritage, and our legacy to generations yet unborn.

[RandyG]

Mike, you are right in that humans have a long history and effect on the land. Impossible to deny. However, the impact we have today is much greater. Roads fragment habitat and encourage invasive species, resource extraction has these and even more effects. As a species we will/should continue to harvest nature's bounty.

However, in my opinion some places should be protected so as to prevent the more degrading activities of human use. It is within these boundaries that the landscape will be minimally impacted by direct human activities.

The bottomline to me is scale. Wilderness areas are a minor portion of the landscape. The vast majority of public lands are open to more intense human use. As Caretakers I see no harm in allowing a few spots where you can backpack in to hunt or seek solitude without an ATV running through your camp. Deer and elk seem to like these areas as well, especially when the ATV hunters run thier trap lines.

[educator II]

Agreed Randy G, but what we have going on here is the eco's trying to get every single mountain range in Dona Ana County listed as wilderness. There's one, the Robledos, with the dinosaur tracks that deserves it, but the rest are miles from nowhere and nobody's making new roads just using the ones that have existed for as long as I've been here.

I have a disease that will likely make me unable to hike within a few years. I don't want to be cut off from the places I grew up enjoying and that I and most others treat with respect. A few bad apples are going to spoil it for us just like with the fireworks.