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termite wildloaf
Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 134 | TRs | Pics Location: in an alley near Aurora Ave. |
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termite
wildloaf
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Thu Oct 21, 2004 8:20 pm
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Okay, I have been reading these pages for a while and now I realize you better watch it if you are going to publicly declare your hiking practices
I really didn't see the point of hiking, but being a field biologist and then losing that gig made me pine to get out more often with no real goal other than to go.
Then I got a summer job in Aberdeen, WA looking up in the sky in the twilight hours for the marbled murrelet. I guess it was good that I was hiking with no respect for trails in that particular area. I bet not many of you hike from Aberdeen north to Humptulips because it is mainly a clearcut. Although, I did find a patch of Honeydew plants, the predatory ones, that I thought was pretty exotic for a heavily impacted area.
Well, once I came to western WA. I couldn't be a biologist because I was instantly awestruck by the beauty of the land. I messed up all the counts and just kind of stared through the miles of cedar stands. I did a bunch of hiking off trail, in the meantime, tearing through sphagnum beds.
Then I traded with one of the workers in the Forks area, and that was even more amazing than the clearcuts and the beautiful green sollel (sp?). I was stationed on the Sollecks river near Yahoo Lakes. Is that lake secret?
I guess my question is that the Fish and Game, DNR, and such has biologists out there in your favorite "pristine" places Plucking plants, drugging animals and blazing off the trail. Are they ever held accountable or at least educated??
"I seem to have lost my bearing."
"I seem to have lost my bearing."
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Lagerman UnAdvanced User
Joined: 07 Mar 2004 Posts: 1314 | TRs | Pics Location: Crab'n on the Hood Canal |
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Lagerman
UnAdvanced User
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Thu Oct 21, 2004 8:23 pm
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Quote: | I guess my question is that the Fish and Game, DNR, and such has biologists out there in your favorite "pristine" places Plucking plants, drugging animals and blazing off the trail. Are they ever held accountable or at least educated?? |
Are you asking if the people that control all aspects of Washingtons enviroment ever been educated.............????
Its there data and efforts that educate us....
I might be missing something here....wouldnt be the first time..
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termite wildloaf
Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 134 | TRs | Pics Location: in an alley near Aurora Ave. |
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termite
wildloaf
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Thu Oct 21, 2004 8:45 pm
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OK. The post is unfocussed. I just wanted to see if anyone had any deep seeded feelings on this general subject.
What I am talking about is the grunt workers. Who are trudging through areas with a GPS off-trail collecting foliage or creatures with a state vehicle parked at the trailhead, so that no permits or NW forest passes are needed.
Does that agitate anyone? Or do you imagine the results of the research is worth the impact?
"I seem to have lost my bearing."
"I seem to have lost my bearing."
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Lagerman UnAdvanced User
Joined: 07 Mar 2004 Posts: 1314 | TRs | Pics Location: Crab'n on the Hood Canal |
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Lagerman
UnAdvanced User
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Thu Oct 21, 2004 9:05 pm
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Quote: | Who are trudging through areas with a GPS off-trail collecting foliage or creatures with a state vehicle parked at the trailhead, so that no permits or NW forest passes are needed |
I don't have any experience with the collecting methods or what have you, but you defently need to go off trail to collect data and speicmens for enviromental research. A "on trail" research data would be about worthless I would think, because trail areas reflect way differently than the rest of the areas. There research (while there is alot of debate within here, but thats a way different thread) is vital to what those branches do. It is something defently needed.
If there practicing bad habits while there out there, that are destructive and not needed to gain the data. Then that might be a training problem. Wrongbridge was telling me he was going to help with the fish data gathering for last summer. Maybe if he is lurking about he can fill us in on some of the training he encountered do this.
As far as not having permits, I would think it would be silly personally to have state vechiles that are doing state research pay for permits. That would be a needless recyling of money that I am sure would result in just the taxpayers paying more for a needless thing.
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Tom Admin
Joined: 15 Dec 2001 Posts: 17851 | TRs | Pics
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Tom
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Thu Oct 21, 2004 9:07 pm
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Not really a big deal IMO if a few biologists (or non-biologists) pluck a plant here or blaze off trail there. Unless they are real idiots, the impact isn't much different than anyone else who goes off trail, and far less impact than publicizing a place that can't handle a lot of increased traffic, is relatively unvisited and easy to reach, has limited natural protection (brush, cliffs), and is close to a large population. The most controversial places are those that satisfy all of the above. A beautiful set of tarns within a 1 hour drive of Seattle is a different story than a similar destination a 3-4 hour drive away. But in either case, a few biologists studying the area isn't going to be that big of a deal.
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kleet meat tornado
Joined: 06 Feb 2002 Posts: 5303 | TRs | Pics Location: O no they dih ent |
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kleet
meat tornado
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Fri Oct 22, 2004 6:51 am
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Quote: | I bet not many of you hike from Aberdeen north to Humptulips |
Nope. But I do enjoy saying "Humptulips" over and over and over.
A fuxk, why do I not give one?
A fuxk, why do I not give one?
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polarbear Member
Joined: 16 Dec 2001 Posts: 3680 | TRs | Pics Location: Snow Lake hide-away |
The government employees I've met in the outback seem to have a high regard for the wilderness. While I don't like the permit system, I don't begrudge their free admission since it kind of goes with the job.
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salish Member
Joined: 17 Dec 2001 Posts: 2322 | TRs | Pics Location: Seattle |
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salish
Member
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Sun Oct 24, 2004 7:53 pm
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Quote: | But I do enjoy saying "Humptulips" over and over and over. |
There's an old Pete Barbutti joke about that - the name of the town is something you never say to a dutchman.
My short-term memory is not as sharp as it used to be.
Also, my short-term memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
My short-term memory is not as sharp as it used to be.
Also, my short-term memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
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Accraholic Member
Joined: 06 Nov 2004 Posts: 25 | TRs | Pics Location: Oregon |
Errr...should the referee's at a basketball game have to buy a ticket?
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evergreenhiker Hiking Specialist
Joined: 13 Nov 2004 Posts: 367 | TRs | Pics Location: Gold Bar |
I used to have to bushwack for a job down in the north Oregon coast...specifically the Nehalem River drainage system. I worked with a crew of three people and each of us had to do like 4-5 tribs a day. This was solitary work and required negotiating DCs, blowdowns, other brush, etc. in our pursuit to count spawning Wild coho salmon. Unfortunately I think I only spotted 4 such fish the entire 4 months. Others fared similarily. We had better luck iwth the chinook. Saw some steelhead too, but they are pretty hard to see.
Oops...tribs stands for tributaries. We also did upper sections of the mainstem. Anyway, all of us were outdoor lovers and respected the terrain we were in. Treaded lightly as possible.
The alpine world is my church.
The alpine world is my church.
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Backpacker Joe Blind Hiker
Joined: 16 Dec 2001 Posts: 23956 | TRs | Pics Location: Cle Elum |
OFF WITH HIS HEAD!
TB
"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide."
— Abraham Lincoln
"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide."
— Abraham Lincoln
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sailBOI Access Public Lands
Joined: 03 Apr 2004 Posts: 82 | TRs | Pics Location: over the Rainbow |
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sailBOI
Access Public Lands
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Thu Nov 25, 2004 5:42 pm
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evergreenhiker wrote: | Anyway, all of us were outdoor lovers and respected the terrain we were in. Treaded lightly as possible. |
Properly educated people are much easier on the environment than many of the wild animals out there. The State have protected the Elk on the Olympic Peninsula, and moved more into the Dosewallips Valley from the Sequim area. Folks living there can show you significant damage to the terrain and vegitation.
For example, these animals are habitual, and use the same trails over and over. These trails are conspicuous to anyone seeing them due to the erosion being caused. Another thing that they do is come back to the same trees year after year to rub their antlers. For some reason they choose fir and hardwoods around 4'-6' girth. Due to this repetition, the trees are girdled after a few years, or borers enter to damaged areas, leaving the trees to die. We have quite a few of these on our property.
Black Bear also strip your Cedar bark, often killing the trees. I bring this up because over "protection" will lead to environmental degradation. It is hard to acheive a "balance" and it would be helpful to have more science and less emotion involved.
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