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termite
wildloaf



Joined: 20 Sep 2004
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Location: in an alley near Aurora Ave.
termite
wildloaf
PostThu Oct 21, 2004 8:20 pm 
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."
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Lagerman
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Joined: 07 Mar 2004
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Location: Crab'n on the Hood Canal
Lagerman
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PostThu Oct 21, 2004 8:23 pm 
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
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Location: in an alley near Aurora Ave.
termite
wildloaf
PostThu Oct 21, 2004 8:45 pm 
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."
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Lagerman
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Joined: 07 Mar 2004
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Location: Crab'n on the Hood Canal
Lagerman
UnAdvanced User
PostThu Oct 21, 2004 9:05 pm 
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
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Tom
Admin
PostThu Oct 21, 2004 9:07 pm 
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
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Location: O no they dih ent
kleet
meat tornado
PostFri Oct 22, 2004 6:51 am 
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?
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polarbear
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Joined: 16 Dec 2001
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polarbear
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PostFri Oct 22, 2004 6:28 pm 
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
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salish
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PostSun Oct 24, 2004 7:53 pm 
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.
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Accraholic
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Accraholic
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PostSun Nov 07, 2004 3:19 pm 
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
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Location: Gold Bar
evergreenhiker
Hiking Specialist
PostThu Nov 25, 2004 12:39 pm 
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.
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Backpacker Joe
Blind Hiker



Joined: 16 Dec 2001
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Backpacker Joe
Blind Hiker
PostThu Nov 25, 2004 5:35 pm 
OFF WITH HIS HEAD! TB lol.gif

"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
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Location: over the Rainbow
sailBOI
Access Public Lands
PostThu Nov 25, 2004 5:42 pm 
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. wink.gif

I am working on reopening the Dosewallips Road for campers and hikers . Join our effort at : www.brinnonprosperity.org
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