[elgecko]

I remember the good old days when Glamis was free. Slowly we have let environmental wackos push us around, and take what we hold dear to us. They have proven to be total morons and not truly know anything. Evidence of this can be demonstrated by their fire managment in Southern CA. In the end they are directly responsible for homes burning in my opinion.

Okay, I'll bite. How are enviro whackos directly repsonsible for homes burning?

* edited to fix HTML

 

[elgecko]

The enviro wackos wont let the fire departments do controlled burns, so the chapparel gets too dense, and the leaves that shed from the chapparel build up. It is a common occurance that static electricity from eastern "santa ana" winds combined with super dry conditions (low humidity) can create a spontaneous combustion that causes many of the wildfires of Southern California. If the fire departments could take a proactive approach and do controlled burns, then they would be able to somewhat prevent these wildfires from getting so out of control. But hey, you wouldn't want to endanger some endangered cricket or grub would you? Ecological science says that chapparel should burn naturally once every seven years. It would definately burn if we didn't have fire departments. This info is always on the news every year. There is always a big wildfire, and the fire chief will be on the news explaining the need to do the controlled burns vs. environmental wackoism at the state level. I didn't just make it up. Chapparel that is 15 feet high is just a disaster waiting to happen. California democrat government officials are also a disaster waiting to happen.

Wouldn't that be an indirect result? Either way, you're right in the necessity for prescribed burns. It's ironic though that the need for prescribed burns is a result of years of fire management (i.e. fire suppresion). I'm not advocating letting wildfires run rampant, that'd be silly...just pointing out that the problem isn't entirely attributable to enviro whackoism.

 

[elgecko]

You can stick up for the enviro wackos if you want, but I just been locked out of too many of my favorite places to have enthusiasm for their cause. It is honorable that they fight for what they believe, and yes some of what they believe may be true, but nobody knows how to manage the whole ecosystem of earth, and I don't trust them to "guide" us. If you have been to Glamis, I'm sure you can testify that the world isnt going to miss a few sand beetles, flys, scorpions, weeds, or ants. The part of the dunes that is impacted by off roading is probably less than 10% of the entire dune complex, if even that. Sure there is other places to go, but Glamis is the great offroaders paradise of Southern California and maybe even the whole southwest. Can't we even have one place that the wackos will just leave us alone at?

I believe that the world is not black & white and don't feel that taking the "big picture" approach necessarily means I'm defending the envirowhackos. A situation as complex as the one in Glamis is caused by a number of factors. I've been to any number of places in the California desert where the level of irresponsible and inappropriate use (appliance dumping, sofa burning, car abandoning, etc) would cause an envirowhacko's head to literally explode. You never hear of endangered species problems in these areas. Why not?

One might argue that problems in high-use areas like Glamis are more likely a result of "reputation" that the users have established for themselves over the years. There was recently a discussion about New Years in Pismo on the Cali board. Some of the descriptions of New Years Eve there included speeding in and around campsites, drunken assholes, and numerous deaths, and general dicketry.

Mind you, these are the perceptions of offroaders. Look at it through the eyes of an envirowhacko and multiply it by the sheer number of users (isn't in the tens of thousands for Holiday weekends?) and you can see we have a huge public image problem.

We have a boatload of local access issues. Glamis and the Milk Vecth; Pismo and the Snowy Plover; Azusa Canyon and the Santa Ana Sucker Fish. Are endangered species somehow geographically limited to these areas? Is the level of misuse at these areas disproportionately high? The answer is "probably not". Are these areas being targeted by the envirowhackos because of the high level of use and public perceptions? It's something we as offroaders should ponder. Happy New Years.