Budget cutbacks affecting backpackers

My concern with the camp closures including bathrooms will be the lack of enforcement resulting in improper etiquette. Trash and poop. Overcrowded trails and such.

Most are contracted to a vendor. Too early to see effects. Many in the SE open April 1.

Just guessing, but I expect commercialization, like the “towns” that have grown near entrances to places like the Grand Canyon South Rim and Zion. Except that the commercialization could happen inside the parks. Facilities will be more fancy, prices and crowds will increase. I think we lose something important with that, but only time will tell for sure.

“Except that the commercialization could happen inside the parks.”

I think that ship has already sailed.

NOAA cuts

https://abcnews.go.com/US/job-cuts-noaa-impact-weather-forecasting/story?id=119511461

“Except that the commercialization could happen inside the parks.”

Maybe they could sell off facilities in the parks, like visitor centers, to private companies, that would then charge entry fees.

Pay to pee? The commercial vendors are the guides, commercial photography, they provide many camp hosts. They aren’t and they shouldn’t be theme parks. They’re protected areas, green spaces and should be treated as such.  There’s plenty of private land for that already.

^^^ This.

All you need to do is look outside any major national park at the communities that have sprung up, and compare that to what you see inside the park. Big difference.

Historically, one of the drivers for creating the National Parks was Niagara Falls.  When people saw what happened there, they decided that they didn’t want that to happen in Yellowstone, Yosemite, etc.

“Commercialization” has many meanings, including strip mining, clear cutting, and other such enterprises..

Pay to pee?

Good idea, people are sometimes highly motivated to pee so will pay anything.

You could have AI figure out how desperate a person is and charge accordingly

This thread is stimulating my sarcasm

From my experience only, I have not liked facilities run by concessionaires. They tend to be run down, no incentive to keep things nice, less clean, and the staff are generally less interested in the customer’s experience. I dislike privatizing public parks and facilities for that reason. A state park campground near me was being run by a concessioner who refused to put TP in the vault toilets, and spent his time drinking and smoking pot, playing loud music on the stereo. He had that contract for several years! Place was a wreck. Having worked for a concessioner, I can also say that adherence to safety standards was a joke. Employees were badly paid, and the food was lousy. Visiting Glacier NP, Grand Canyon, and Denali in the last couple of years, I found everything overpriced and low value for the money.

I remember as a kid when the rangers were all a big part of the experience. The campfire meetings. I’d learn some history, everybody would sing about putting their head down a skunks hole. “Take me out to the redwoods” was another favorite. Before they focused so much on law enforcement, they taught respect for the wild places. Concessioners don’t provide the same experience. To many folks today, (not all) they’re just a place to escape the city heat and to drink beer. The trash piles up. Many of the camp hosts are old school and they do a very good job, but it’s not the same.

Oh, I stuck my head
In the little skunk’s hole
And the little skunk said
Well, bless my soul
Take it out, take it out
Take it out, remove it
Oh, I didn’t take it out
And the little skunk said
If you don’t take it out
You’ll wish you had
Take it out, take it out
Pheew! I removed it

I have a wonderful childhood memory of sunset walk at Badlands NP. The ranger explained the origins of the erosion gullies and showed us the “badlands slide,” as a way to hike the trails. Then after the sun set, she pointed out all the constellations. I’ll never forget when she pointed out Cassiopeia, and said in the rest of the hemisphere it represents a character from Greek mythology, but in South Dakota, when you see a giant “W” in the sky, you have to assume it’s advertising for Wall Drug.  :-)

If you’ve driven I-90, you’ll get it.

Afterwards, there was a campfire.

Love these last two posts!

BTW, if you want to get more personally involved, now that the weather is getting better, it’s time to get back to work on the trails. I spent Saturday working on the Soscol Headwaters trail system–fourteen miles of new trails in a wonderful area in the hills above southern Napa. Terrific views, great people, and a nice sense of accomplishment. And a big project to manage with a very small budget.  Volunteers are making this whole thing possible.

We repaired some of the damage done by recent storms and marauding cattle, grading the trail for better drainage, installing a couple of stone drains, and generally making the trail more secure against future problems. We’re keeping an eye on the big storm forecast for next week, but we think we’ve resolved most of the cattle issue. And once these trails get a chance to settle in a bit, they should be good for this summer, and many summers beyond.

Here’s a link to some photos of the crew at work, including a few beauty shots of what the views and terrain up there are like.  Wonderful spot.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/FfL18aPBLURwAPru9

I was named after terrain. Literally I am of the earth. But then we all are.😁

I am of a super nova :)

Good. We can use one right about now.

Mother Earth always laughs last.

my theory is that the big bang occurred because an intelligent civilization created a super collider with enough energy that it caused a big bang

Maybe we could do that.  That would take care of the problem : )

Eleven people who work at the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit lost their jobs last month in the so-called “Valentine’s Day Massacre” led by Elon Musk’s U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, according to former employees. The job losses compound chronically low staffing, plus a hiring freeze on seasonal workers that went into effect last fall. In all, the management unit has lost a third of its recreational staff, including the lone permanent wilderness ranger position in Desolation Wilderness.

“As of right now, all of the wilderness staff for the [Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit] side of Desolation is completely gone,” she said. “There is literally no one on the [Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit] side at all.”

https://www.sfgate.com/renotahoe/article/fallout-forest-service-lake-tahoe-gutted-20209156.php

I’m a little worried about those layoffs in particular. I called the LTBMU to get my Tahoe Rim Trail permit (actually the permit is only for Desolation, which is all that is needed) in 2022. It took about 40 calls to get through finally; there was only one employee doing the permits. Not sure what will happen now! My fallback plan for this summer – if I am furloughed, which is likely and the only way I can get time off – was to hike PCT I and J sections, from Echo Lakes to Yosemite. Not sure how I’ll get a permit.

One of the many awful aspects of all this disruption is that previously, all the forest service units worked together to do permitting across multiple units. All those relationships and procedures could potentially be tossed out the window, if no one remains who knows anything. Of course, people losing their jobs is always awful for those families and individuals. And I have to wonder about fire coordination, evacuation, rescue, fire warning systems, etc.

I had a boss like this once – she thought that creating chaos would make everything better. Change everyone’s jobs, discontinue all kinds of services and procedures at random, and put a shiny face on all of it. God knows where people learn this “management technique.” It took years to put us all back on track again, and the wounds are still not fully healed. Now we’ll see massive cutbacks again as our funding disappears into the pockets of the billionaires. Hint: it does not save money.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/did-trump-really-order-280-million-acres-of-national-forest-to-be-cut-down-223112112.html

Azt hiker drported