Wow, am I P***ed. Frothing at the mouth and ranting as I type this.
Drove over to see how well the ice is melting off my favorite home waters fishing hole today (not very well – still lots of ice in the shade). Somebody has cut down a live, green, 30 inch diameter blue spruce tree to fall across the river as a ‘bridge’ to cross over. I know it was for a bridge since they also shagged the limbs off the top for easier walking.
Ever heard of waders, you @#$^&^#$s? So I know it was not fisherfolk. It’s high school and college graduation kegger party season here now, along with ATV, jeep and motorcycle season (and, unfortunately, ‘mud-bogging’ season).
Had I caught them in the act, I’d probably be in jail for what I would’ve done to them on the spur of the moment, in the middle of the national forest a half mile from the road. Tho I sure wish I’d caught some license plates…the USFS has a ‘book of damages’ for what to fine people depending on what they destroy in the forest.
Ironically – they had NO idea how to use a chainsaw – they felled it without notching! Incredibly dangerous and stupid, and they are darn lucky they got it pushed over the river (must’ve taken 3-4 dummys pushing while one person sawed) instead of falling on them and their camp.
The trash they left is bad enough, but killing a live, 300 year old tree to make a foot bridge in our National Forest???
Alas, no grocery store receipts or such with their names on it in the trash – I looked carefully! USFS busted some kids for starting a forest fire here a couple years back from a soggy Safeway receipt.
Anyway, thanks for letting me vent here.
Grrrrrrrrr…
DANBOB
I’m sorry, have seen that crap increasing each year. No fix that I know of. Unless you can catch them. Likely some judge would just warn them anyway, that’s the sad part.
Sadly, respect just isn’t being taught anymore, whether it be for individuals or Mother Nature. Makes me sick. Too bad the tree didn’t fall on the camp and the a**hls.
That’s a shame. I can appreciate your frustration, I got bummed when kids ran a cable across a stream 10’ high. Naturally I popped a fly off on it- lucklily I didn’t trash the flyline. Maybe mother nature will get her licks in when one of the drunks slips in…how deep and cold is it there?
I know EXACTLY how you feel, Dan. I’m a card-carrying tree-hugger myself. Colorado is not known for its plentiful rainfall and fast growing trees. Fourteen rain-year inches in a desert in any book.
Do you recall that part-time fire-fighting woman that started that fire couple years ago and burned all those acres? If I was the judge, she wouldn’t be in jail. She’d be spending another 6 hours a day, after her normal job, with couple hundred spruce and pine seedlings replanting the forests. (That, my friend, is justice. Not sitting in a jail, watching TV and reading books.)
Dude said “respect just isn’t being taught anymore”. I can’t agree. Most of our youth are learning about respect and respecting nature. There are always enough jerks to go around like the ones danbob is referring to. Lets not condemn everyone for the outrageous acts of a few.
DB- That is enough to pi** off anyone. Sorry you had to see it.
We have had same kinda problems here in Arkansas especially with off road vehicles. My dad is a wildlife officer and he has been setting up on closed roads backed off about 50 yards past the carbonite closed road signs and writing a ton of tickets for riding on closed roads. He has made a believer out of a lot of folks on closed road signs. The 4x4 and off road explosion is something I dont have a problem with as long as they stay on roads and paths designed for their travel.
[This message has been edited by parrotheadcrb (edited 27 April 2006).]
The behavior is just unacceptable. I don’t believe respect or responsibility is being taught - or if it is not properly. If I see or hear “it’s not my fault” as an excuse for bad behavior or illegal stuff I’ll scream.
The threat of ‘telling your parents’ doesn’t work because too many the parents don’t care either.
There is a degratation of our society which is just wrong. I have no idea of how to fix it.
Jed, I respect your opinion, however, it used to be rare to witness a kid being a total jackass a few years when out in public, now it’s rare when one says “yes ma’am”, or “no, thank you”, or “please”, or “excuse me”, or "…
I see 'em all the time, as well as adults, throwing crap out their car windows or dropping wrappers on the ground as they walk somewhere. I just think it’s a minority now, instead of the majority that show any type of respect towards anything or anybody.
Trees and rivers lead lives that are intertwined. They are both living things, and like all living things, they can be killed.
Today, I too am saddened to read your obituary of that beautiful, majestic tree. And as it toppled across that river, it also took a part of the life of the river as well.
I love trees, and I love rivers. I’m always saddened to hear of one’s untimely demise. It’s such a shame.
Dude,
Up north when I lived in Vermont in the 60’s and 70’s trash lined the roads. We introduced a bottle bill and education around that. The road sides are 100% cleaner.
Dateline 4/27/06 Pioneer Valley H.S. students are running a blood drive throughout the school and organizing a Junior Olympics for the elementary school kids in the feeder schools. Students presented to the School Committee last night about those activities. They were dressed like slobs, were lacking in posture and grammar in their presentation and were as cute as buttons. I say it is wise to ignore the wrapper and look at the insides
I do agree that some of the common signs of respect are disappearing, but I try not to discount the majority because of the actions of what is probably an increasing minority. Most of our youth today are fine people, just needing some polishing up.
I feel your pain. Around these parts, timber theft is running rampant. Much of it is for commercial firewood. That is, they cut down the trees (usually snags alongside roads, cut them up, and sell them to people to heat their houses. On the one hand I can appreciate the need to stay warm, but on the other I am peeved that I follow the rules and manage to heat my home. Guess folks do not want to actually work hard at finding legal firewood around here.
However, trees like the ones below don’t make great firewood (at least for a couple years), so I have to assume someone wanted to have some cheap lumber.
137 feet to where it broke.
59" in diameter, 210 feet tall (with a broken top)
Both of these trees are in an unmapped set-aside for a specific northern spotted owl territory, within fifty feet of a stream, and were standing and alive when they were cut. Both are merchantable timber, which makes the three violations above into felony timber theft instead of firewood theft.
I am on the war path with people that do such things. They are the most disgusting type of people. One of my heroes is President Theodore Roosevelt. What incredible foresight he had! Punks that do this type of destruction should be made to read his personal views on conservation until they convert or go blind. President Roosevelt was a hunter and fisherman that taught us to use our wild wonders responsibly.
When I was a youngster my dad had the woods that he owned timbered. No tree under 15 inches in diameter was harvested and tops were placed in a manner that promoted good cover for wildlife. He wanted the land to appear as if it were never touched. If I took you on that land today you wouldn’t know it was timbered unless I told you. That woods is healthy and teaming with life.
As a teacher, as well as an outdoorsman, I infuse a lot of nature and conservation into my classes (5th grade). I’m finding that more and more, I have to start from scratch with the kids. Most of them have no idea what nature is, and we live in an area that has a number of great county conservation parks and state parks available to the people. When I talk to the kids about camping, most of them equate it to a weekend in an RV park with miniature golf and a swimming pool. They have no idea what a tent is, much less having ever slept in one. You probably couldn’t get most of them to take a walk in the woods without their walkman or ipod blasting in their ears.
A lot of the disrespect for nature that I see in the kids didn’t just happen. Most of them learned it from their parents. We used to take parents along on the field trips to drive and help manage the kids, especially on a trip to a local pond to do water studies. Some of the parents were a bigger pain in the butt than the kids. Everyone was of the opinion that the trip was an all day recess, not a learning experience. Many times after lunch, I ended up picking up trash that I know some parents let fall or blow away. I’d also have to correct the kids that were swinging from the branches of trees and pulling up plants, while their parent was standing right there talking to another adult about where they should go drinking that weekend. Needless to say, we don’t take them with us anymore. Got tired of babysitting brain-dead adults.
When the kids learn from examples like that, it’s a h*ll of a battle to teach them the right way to deal with nature, and to respect what is there for them.
Just from my point of view.
CJ
The only limitations we have are the ones we put on ourselves.
JC, the people in the photos were with me, and were in the pics for scale. We about have to see a saw in a tree to prosecute. But we are selling the trees instead of letting them get carted off by whoever cut em down.
