Preserving Wilderness in the age of peak popularity

While some people are furious about the Visitor Use Management Report for the High Peaks Wilderness Complex, I think it’s an excellent report with long overdue recommendations.

The report establishes that the current levels of use cause traffic, parking, and crowding issues. Some feel the issues are overblown. Really? Does anyone doubt that these conditions exist? You don’t think there’s traffic congestion at times? You don’t think there’s parking issues at times? You don’t think there’s crowding at times? You don’t think that it’s just a matter of time before someone gets killed crossing route 73 on their way to hike a High Peak?

You don’t believe it? Or do you just not care? If you don’t believe it, you’re in denial. If you don’t care, then you don’t care what Wilderness is supposed to be.

The report’s authors feel the High Peaks Wilderness Complex should be a special place that provides high-quality visitor experiences in a natural setting without crowding, and with outstanding opportunities for solitude. It should be a place where nature predominates. What seems to be lost in the discussion is the understanding that Wilderness needs to represent these legally-mandated Wilderness values.

If these things aren’t important to you, then I guess Wilderness isn’t important to you. Your outdoor recreational activities can be fulfilled by something less than officially-designated Wilderness. If these things aren’t important to you why go to a place where nature dominates and we are just visitors? Why go to a place that retains its primeval character and has no human habitation when you can satisfy your outdoor recreation desires in a setting more like Central Park? Wilderness is at the extreme end of the outdoor recreational spectrum. That's what makes it special.

I’ve often believed if people are content with traffic jams, long queues at trailheads, crowds of people, noise pollution, and litter, then they don’t understand what Wilderness is. If they need constant connectivity with their phones along with their apps and music, then perhaps they should limit their outdoor recreational activities to the many non-Wilderness state parks. If they venture into Wilderness, they must accept it as it is meant to be.

Unfortunately, the report is not an easy document to digest. Former President Barack Obama once asked whether politicians can “talk in plain English to folks” without surrounding everything in “gobbledygook.” Unfortunately, this report has lots of “gobbledygook” and reads more like a PhD dissertation than a public document.

It is packed with initialisms — IVUMF, PPV, VAOT, VUMF — enough to make your head spin. It is also filled with jargon such as indicators, thresholds, statistical models, and “adaptive visitor use management strategies” (try saying that five times fast). The challenge of reading the report sadly obscures the fact that it’s filled with valuable information.

Some lament that the study focuses too much on crowding and not enough on natural resource protection. They fail to consider the purpose of the study. Protecting the environment is relatively easy to understand and to deal with. This project was intentionally focused on crowding issues because they are the most challenging issues to address.

Others have compared the crowds in the High Peaks Wilderness to New Year’s Eve in Times Square saying that people don’t mind the crowds. That’s ridiculous. But if it’s true let’s invite the New Year’s Eve crowds to the summit of Cascade Mountain to watch the ball drop.

We have become a nation of Last-Minute Millies (apologies to all the Millies out there). In 1918 when Wilderness advocate Bob Marshall and guide Herb Clark started climbing the High Peaks, they couldn’t just hop in the buckboard and head over to the Adirondack Loj. Instead, they had to plan.

But for many that’s not the case today. No more studying the maps, I’ll just check my GPS once I'm on the trail. I don’t have to check the weather, that’s why I wear Gore-Tex and Patagonia. I don’t have to make a definite meeting time; I’ll just call you when I leave the house. Emergencies? We’ll call the Forest Ranger or contact authorities with the press of a button on our Garmin inReach. The distance between wilderness and civilization has narrowed because civilization is no longer absent.

Independence and uncertainty used to be part of the experience. It’s one of the things that made wilderness Wilderness. Preparation was not optional; it was a prerequisite for safe travel and self-reliance. And guess what? It still is. Or it should be!

The recommendations in the report, if implemented, are going to increase the quality of the visitors’ wilderness experience because it will force folks to plan ahead. It’s also going to eliminate considerable crowding and will increase opportunities for solitude.

So, what exactly are the recommendations people are upset about? The DEC is considering setting limits on three criteria: First, the number of cars in the various parking lots, Second, the number of visitors per day along “the Adirondack Loj Road Subregion” to a maximum of 400. And third it limits the number of visitors per day in “the Cascade Subregion” to a maximum of 240 visitors per day.

What might the impact be on the average visitor? As I interpret the data there would be only about 14 days a year that visitors would be turned away from parking on the Adirondack Loj Road and about 10 days a year that they’d be turned away from Cascade Mountain. On those days, if you don’t have a permit, you’ll be SOL. But is that a bad tradeoff for a more authentic Wilderness experience? I think not.

Before moving forward with these ambitious plans, the state must clearly explain the proposed changes and why they matter. A revised easy-to-understand report effort is essential so that the average person can understand why the changes are necessary, and how they may affect their future trips to the High Peaks.

If we are to have a world class wilderness, we need world class management.

So, congratulations to the DEC for initiating this project. Now they need to get the funding and support to implement it.

To read the report click HERE.