Ironwood Forest National Monument
A dedicated user has posted this to my site. I know how active some of you are and hope that you can help...
"I happened to pick up an Arizona Highways and there's a article on 12 endangered Arizona areas... and one of them was Ironwood. It seems it's only 8 years old, has no management plan, and is presided by a single park ranger... and it located near a large city (Tucson). It's not some fancy national park with a visitor center or much information on how to recreate responsibly.
Vehicles from illegals and ATVs are taking a toll on the land. Pothunters pilfer old Indian remains. Shooters haul in junk to shoot, or worse yet, shoot up saguaros. This is the Catch-22 we face because we love backcountry wheeling and promote traveling in neat areas yet it seems the more people frequent these areas the more damage occurs. We can all judge the causes and effects but the fact is there are things we can do to help.
Between the dust abatement crap and all the other pressures and conflicts regarding off-road travel, it's all very demoralizing. I'm going to make a committment to myself to try and do more... I think we're at a crossroads and I plan on going down swinging. It may mean getting more active politically, or do more "policing" or trying to educate, or something... I don't know for sure. Two tangible things I do plan on doing immediately is always bring a garbage bag and picking up what I see (within reason) and arming myself with the relevant phone numbers of a particlar area so I can call in if I see anything happening... even if it's after the fact.
I've always considered myself a fairly responsible outdoorsman, and the last thing I want to do is become some sniveling, finger-wagging enviro-nerd. But what are the alternatives? Lay down and die?"
-AZTacoma
Ryan Gibson
[url]http://www.arizonatrailways.com[/url]
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks