|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#61
|
|||
|
|||
The Effects of Mountain Biking on Wildlife and People -- Why
Jim Messick says:
Actually I think a big part of science IS guesswork, followed by trying to prove that the guess is correct. Whoooooossshshhhh....... ;-) |
Ads |
#62
|
|||
|
|||
The Effects of Mountain Biking on Wildlife and People -- Why Off-Road Bicycling Should be Prohibited
On Sat, 03 Jul 2004 07:40:50 GMT, Mike Vandeman wrote:
=== I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8 years fighting auto dependence and road construction.) No I don't. Why does the absence of humans make a habitat "pure?" My dog feels that way about squirrels, why would you feel that way about humans. Are humans somehow impure? Is this some sort of greenist original sin? Of the tens of thousands of species that alter their environment to make it more suitable for themselves are humans to somehow deny themselves this ability. It is unique among those species in setting land aside from itself, which is yet another manifestation of altering the environment to suit itself. Does knowing that some parcel of land is banned to humans make you feel better somehow? Because it is pure and they are not? Shouldn't this be read to indicate that perhaps more land should be off-limits to humans, and if making more land off-limits is good wouldn't making all land off-limits be better? It's the only way to make all land "pure." This is looking like a very strange belief system you've got there. Ron |
#63
|
|||
|
|||
The Effects of Mountain Biking on Wildlife and People -- Why Off-Road Bicycling Should be Prohibited
RonSonic wrote:
On Sat, 03 Jul 2004 07:40:50 GMT, Mike Vandeman wrote: === I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8 years fighting auto dependence and road construction.) No I don't. Why does the absence of humans make a habitat "pure?" My dog feels that way about squirrels, why would you feel that way about humans. Are humans somehow impure? Is this some sort of greenist original sin? Of the tens of thousands of species that alter their environment to make it more suitable for themselves are humans to somehow deny themselves this ability. It is unique among those species in setting land aside from itself, which is yet another manifestation of altering the environment to suit itself. Does knowing that some parcel of land is banned to humans make you feel better somehow? Because it is pure and they are not? Shouldn't this be read to indicate that perhaps more land should be off-limits to humans, and if making more land off-limits is good wouldn't making all land off-limits be better? It's the only way to make all land "pure." This is looking like a very strange belief system you've got there. Milkey is on record as saying his "pure habitat" would only be 10-by-10 in size. 10-by-10 /acres/ you ask? Miles?? Or certainly at least 10 by 10 yards, right??? No, it's 10 by 10 FEET! Hell, I live on a canyon with a jillion 10-by-10-foot areas that have never been affected by human contact. (And, to the best of my knowledge, no one spent ANY previous 8 years doing a damned thing to achieve it.) Bill "a big fan of the man(ic), really" S. |
#64
|
|||
|
|||
The Effects of Mountain Biking on Wildlife and People -- Why Off-Road Bicycling Should be Prohibited
There are plenty of places designated off limits to humans, usually
where particularly sensitive species reside. I'm not saying there should be more or less off-limit areas but this is not really a new concept. RonSonic wrote in message . .. On Sat, 03 Jul 2004 07:40:50 GMT, Mike Vandeman wrote: === I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8 years fighting auto dependence and road construction.) No I don't. Why does the absence of humans make a habitat "pure?" My dog feels that way about squirrels, why would you feel that way about humans. Are humans somehow impure? Is this some sort of greenist original sin? Of the tens of thousands of species that alter their environment to make it more suitable for themselves are humans to somehow deny themselves this ability. It is unique among those species in setting land aside from itself, which is yet another manifestation of altering the environment to suit itself. Does knowing that some parcel of land is banned to humans make you feel better somehow? Because it is pure and they are not? Shouldn't this be read to indicate that perhaps more land should be off-limits to humans, and if making more land off-limits is good wouldn't making all land off-limits be better? It's the only way to make all land "pure." This is looking like a very strange belief system you've got there. Ron |
#65
|
|||
|
|||
The Effects of Mountain Biking on Wildlife and People -- Why Off-Road Bicycling Should be Prohibited
|
#66
|
|||
|
|||
The Effects of Mountain Biking on Wildlife and People -- Why Off-Road Bicycling Should be Prohibited
RonSonic wrote in message . ..
On Sat, 03 Jul 2004 07:40:50 GMT, Mike Vandeman wrote: === I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8 years fighting auto dependence and road construction.) No I don't. Why does the absence of humans make a habitat "pure?" It's pure(ly) wildlife habitat. No humans. My dog feels that way about squirrels, why would you feel that way about humans. Are humans somehow impure? Is this some sort of greenist original sin? Of the tens of thousands of species that alter their environment to make it more suitable for themselves are humans to somehow deny themselves this ability. Humans are BY FAR the most destructive of all species. It is unique among those species in setting land aside from itself, which is yet another manifestation of altering the environment to suit itself. Does knowing that some parcel of land is banned to humans make you feel better somehow? Of course. But more important, it makes the WILDLIFE feel better. Because it is pure and they are not? Shouldn't this be read to indicate that perhaps more land should be off-limits to humans, and if making more land off-limits is good wouldn't making all land off-limits be better? It's the only way to make all land "pure." This is looking like a very strange belief system you've got there. Learn to read. English. DUH! You guys are amazing. Ron |
#67
|
|||
|
|||
The Effects of Mountain Biking on Wildlife and People -- Why Off-Road Bicycling Should be Prohibited
Rabble rabble rabble rabble -- aTmSpectre |
#68
|
|||
|
|||
The Effects of Mountain Biking on Wildlife and People -- Why Off-Road Bicycling Should be Prohibited
MV blathers as usual:
Humans are BY FAR the most destructive of all species. Tell that to the waterhole AFTER the elephants have wallowed.... Steve |
#69
|
|||
|
|||
The Effects of Mountain Biking on Wildlife and People -- Why Off-Road Bicycling Should be Prohibited
(Mike Vandeman) wrote:
Humans are BY FAR the most destructive of all species. Not only are they BAR FAR the most *creative* of all species, they're the only creative species. What's your point? -- Reply to sans two @@, or your reply won't reach me. Drug smugglers and gun-runners are heroes of American capitalism. -- Jeffrey Quick |
#70
|
|||
|
|||
The Effects of Mountain Biking on Wildlife and People -- Why Off-Road Bicycling Should be Prohibited
Mike Vandeman Wrote: The Effects of Mountain Biking on Wildlife and People -- Why Off-Road Bicycling Should be Prohibited Michael J. Vandeman, Ph.D. May 31, 1997 Mountain biking is a relatively new sport. According to a mountain biking (MTB) web page (http://www.mtb-bike.com), "The commercial Mountain Bike evolution didn't start until 1974 and its first production bikes didn't appear in stores until about 10 years later". (Lower gearing, fat, knobby tires, sturdier construction, but particularly the sealed bearing -- which could be ridden in dirt without getting destroyed -- are what made "mountain" (off- road) bicycling possible.) Partly for this reason, and partly because the MTB is, from one point of view, just a special case of an ORV (off-road vehicle), environmentalists and scientists have been slow to study and recognize the special threat that the mountain bike represents to wildlife. Although there are many studies of ORVs, I am not aware of any solid scientific studies specifically on MTBs and their effects on wildlife. To most environmentalists, bicycles have always been the epitome of good. We are so used to comparing bikes to cars, that it never occurred to us that the bicycle would be ever used for anything bad. Indeed, replacing motor vehicles with bicycles deserves our adoration. But anything can be used for good or evil, and using bikes to expand human domination of wildlife habitat is clearly harmful. Human beings think they own every square inch of the Earth, and that they therefore have the right to do what they want with it. This is, of course, absurd. It is also the reason that we are losing species at an unforgivable rate: we have crowded wildlife out of its habitat. Even in our parks, where we have vowed to protect wildlife, it is not protected from hikers, equestrians, park "managers", firefighters, mountain bikers, airplanes, helicopters, cars, roads, concessionaires, or biologists. Thus, the primary reason that mountain bikes are harmful to wildlife is that they, like other technological aids (cars, skis, rafts, rock- climbing equipment, etc.), make it much easier for people to get into wildlife habitat. (Sadly, most people have forgotten that the only thing that makes parks worth visiting is the wildlife that live the it is _____ precisely the wildlife (and paucity of humans) that make a park a __________________________________________________ _______________ park. Without wildlife (i.e., all nonhuman, nondomesticated species ____ -- plants as well as animals), the parks would be boring piles of bare rock.) Biology _______ First and most obvious, mountain bikes kill organisms that live on and under the soil: "When it comes to pure recreational destructiveness, ... off-road vehicles (ORVs) far surpass powerboats. ... It is a rare environment indeed where a vehicle can be taken off-road without damage. ... Standard ORVs with their knobby tires are almost ideal devices for smashing plant life and destroying soil. Even driven with extreme care, a dirt bike will degrade about an acre of land in a twenty-mile drive. ... Not only do the ORVs exterminate animals by exterminating plants, they attack them directly as well. Individual animals on the surface and in shallow burrows ... are crushed. ... One great problem with ORVs ___________________________ is that they supply easy access to wilderness areas for __________________________________________________ _____ unsupervised people who have ... no conception of the damage they __________________________________________________ _______________ are doing" (Ehrlich and Ehrlich, pp.169-171; emphasis added). _________ (Although mountain bikes were hardly known when this was written, it is obvious that the same applies to them.) Recently, one of the largest Alameda whipsnakes (a California threatened species) ever found was killed by a mountain biker in Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve near here. Others have been killed on other East Bay regional parks. Kathryn Phillips in Tracking the Vanishing Frogs described how ORVs crossing creeks ____________________________ crush toads and their eggs (both buried in the sand). Bikes are generally ridden too fast to avoid killing small animals. Obviously, the animals didn't evolve in the presence of mountain bikes, and can't be expected to deal very effectively with such quiet, fast-moving objects. Even hikers can kill small animals, if they aren't careful. The one time I went to look for an Alameda whipsnake, I almost stepped on one, which was lying in grass growing in the trail, and didn't move until I had almost stepped on it. Soils are extremely complex communities of living organisms. They sometimes are very fragile and once destroyed take decades to be recreated (e.g. desert cryptogamic soil). Soil destruction is hastened by acceleration (braking, speeding up, climbing, and turning, which apply horizontal forces to the soil), by tire lugs, which break the surface, and by water, which softens the soil and makes it easier to demolish. In the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA), "park officials noted serious erosion problems on certain steep narrow trails and determined that restricting bicycle use would slow such erosion. [They] noted that on narrow trails bicyclists passing other users would either leave the trail or force the other users off the trail to the detriment of off-trail vegetation and wildlife. ... Downhill bicycle travel on steep slopes is usually accompanied by braking and often by skidding which tends to push dislodged surface gravels into ditches, water bars, and drains. Heavy bicycle use on steep trails usually requires that these ditches, water bars, and drains be cleared more frequently than those used by hikers and equestrians only. ... Park staff and visitors reported that bicyclists on these ... trails often skidded to control their speed, slid off of trails on sharp turns, or cut across off-trail areas at certain 'switch-backs'" (Bicycle Trails Council of Marin v. Bruce Babbitt). Mud containing seeds and spores sticks to bike tires, thereby often carrying species of plants into areas where they had not existed (becoming "exotics"). This is worsened by the fact that bicycles travel long distances, and are often carried to distant locations (sometimes even foreign countries) by motor vehicle. It is well known that such exotic species can cause havoc when introduced into new habitats. Most of us were raised to believe that "non-consumptive" recreation is harmless to wildlife. We are taught to enjoy ourselves in nature, guilt-free, as long as we don't directly harm wildlife. However, recent research, and the huge scale of current recreation activities, have discredited this idea. "Traditionally, observing, feeding, and photographing wildlife were considered to be 'nonconsumptive' activities because removal of animals from their natural habitats did not occur.... nonconsumptive wildlife recreation was considered relatively benign in terms of its effects on wildlife; today, however, there is a growing recognition that wildlife-viewing recreation can have serious negative impacts on wildlife" (Knight & Gutzwiller, p.257). In other words, the mere presence of people is often harmful ________ to wildlife, and the more, the worse. "The notion that recreation has no environmental impacts is no longer tenable. Recreationists often degrade the land, water, and wildlife resources that support their activities by simplifying plant communities, increasing animal mortality, displacing and disturbing wildlife, and distributing refuse" (ibid, p.3) "Recreational disturbance has traditionally been viewed as most detrimental to wildlife during the breeding season. Recently, it has become apparent that disturbance outside of the animal's breeding season may have equally severe effects" (p.73) "People have an impact on wildlife habitat and all that depends on it, no matter what the activity" (p.157); "Perhaps the major way that people have influenced wildlife populations is through encroachment into wildlife areas" (p.160). "Outdoor recreation has been recognized as an important factor that can reduce biosphere sustainability.... Indeed, recreational activities, including many that may seem innocuous, can alter vertebrate behaviour, reproduction, distributions, and habitats" (p.169). Knight & Gutzwiller's book contains numerous specific examples of how these negative effects are created. We may not know what the organisms are thinking, but the effect is that they die, are forced to expend extra energy that may be in short supply, become more susceptible to predation, or are forced to move to less suitable habitat, losing access to preferred foods, mates, nesting sites, etc. Since most of us live safely in the midst of plenty, it is hard for us to understand wildlife's predicament. We are flexible enough to survive almost anywhere; they are not. Often they have no other place to live. None of the existing "studies" on mountain biking evaluate its effects on wildlife. They are usually concerned only with visible effects on the trail. In Tilden Regional Park, there are three separate, heavily used mountain biking trails through the middle of supposedly protected Alameda whipsnake habitat areas! "Displaced animals are forced out of familiar habitat and must then survive and reproduce in areas where they are not familiar with the locations of food, shelter, and other vital resources.... Hammitt and Cole ... ranked displacement as being more detrimental to wildlife than harassment or recreation-induced habitat changes.... Densities ... of 13 breeding bird species were negatively associated with the intensity of recreation activity by park visitors, primarily pedestrians and cyclists" (ibid, pp.173- 4); "off-road vehicles can collapse burrows of desert mammals and reptiles" (p.176). Sociology _________ Hikers, especially the elderly, have been abandoning their favorite trails, due to bikers that scare them, hit them, harass them, and destroy the serenity of the parks. Parks are supposed to be a refuge from the crush of humanity and the noise, danger, and artificiality of urban areas. Why bring to our parks the very _______________________________ things that most people go there to escape?! There is absolutely ____________________________________________ nothing wrong with bicycling, in its proper setting (on a road). It is a wonderfully healthful activity. But wildlife is already in _______ danger due to loss of habitat (worldwide, one quarter of all animals are threatend with extinction, according to the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources)). It can't afford to lose any more. And people have very similar needs for being in nature. Our elderly are like wildlife, in that they have nowhere else to go for the experience of nature that they are accustomed to. By definition, hiking trails are the minimum size necessary for a person to hike (approx. 18 inches wide), since they are supposed to have a minimal impact on the environment. They aren't wide enough for a bicyclist to safely pass a hiker or another bicyclist. Mixing bikers and hikers is dangerous for both. In fact, mountain biking is also dangerous for lone riders, since hiking trails don't follow a predictable pattern and have very short sight distances (the distance that one can see ahead on the trail). Emergency room doctors report that a large percentage of mountain bikers incur serious accidents. "The record includes hundreds of letters from park users recounting stories of collisions or near misses with speeding or reckless bicyclists on all kinds of trails but particularly on steep and narrow trails. Hikers and bird watchers repeatedly told how they have been forced off of trails by speeding bicycles and how they have had their peace and solitude on the trails interrupted by bicycles that -- because they are quiet and fast -- seemed to appear out of nowhere and be immediately upon the hikers and other users. Equestrians told how their horses have been startled by speeding or oncoming bicycles and have become restless, on several occasions even throwing and injuring experienced riders. Though most users admitted that the great majority of bicyclists were polite and safety-conscious, letters from hikers, equestrians, bird watchers, joggers, and other users also repeatedly recounted incidents of rudeness, threats, and altercations when they have complained to an offending bicyclist about dangerous conduct. Park staff also reported having received such complaints. ... NPS's [National Park Service's] finding that user conflict and visitor danger would be reduced by limiting bicycle trail access in GGNRA was supported by ample evidence. ... Notwithstanding the responsible user, bicycles are often perceived by other users as a disruptive influence on park trails. Although most of the few reported bicycle accidents in the park involve only single individuals, letters and reports from hikers and equestrians tell of many close calls and confrontational and unsettling experiences". "No single-track trails [in the Marin Headlands] were found suitable for bicycle use" (Bicycle Trails Council v. Bruce Babbitt). Since bicycles require wider trails, parks now often use bulldozers to create and maintain those trails, vastly increasing their impacts. In Claremont Canyon Regional Preserve in Oakland, California, a new trail was created by means of a "small" (6 foot blade) bulldozer. But it rolled off the trail and had to be rescued by a much bigger bulldozer. The existence of bicyclists on trails also forces park rangers to police the trails using motor vehicles (cars or motorcycles), since it is the only way they can hope to catch them! This also increases negative impacts on wildlife. Children learn mostly nonverbally (by watching adults and other children). Mountain biking is bad role modeling for them, since it teaches them that human domination and destruction of wildlife habitat is normal and acceptable. Mountain bikers like to claim that excluding them from trails constitutes "discrimination". They say that other user groups (hikers and equestrians) receive better treatment from land managers. There is no basis for such a claim, since all users are subject to exactly the same rules. For example, on a trail closed to bikes, everyone is allowed on the trail -- only the bikes are ________ _____ excluded! In spite of what they claim, mountain bikers have never ______ been excluded from any trail! Even if my way of "enjoying" the wilderness is to race my bulldozer there, I am not allowed to do that. And this is not because land managers like hikers more than bulldozer racers. I am not being excluded from the wilderness; I can go there whenever I want, as long as I don't try to bring my __________________________________ I just have one question, do you really like arguing with people cause that is about all your going to accomplish here. I seriously doubt anything posted here from you is going to change anyones mind or even make them thank twice about it. My advice if you so dedicated to this is to start trying to get a law passed in whatever state you live in for this wilflife refuge you want to make so bad. Just my 2 cents have fun pasting duhs behind this messages qoute. -- Aurawolf |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
The Effects of Mountain Biking on Wildlife and People -- Why Off-Road Bicycling Should be Prohibited | botchka | Mountain Biking | 8 | July 18th 03 08:07 PM |