Life's Limits
Posted 02-13-2012 at 06:03 AM by LookinForMayberry
My good friend in Tucson goes out to the dessert to see the wildflowers in bloom each spring. This morning's email reports that this weekend's trip was just a bit too early, as the cacti are only in bud -- just a few blossoms. She also commented on how there were so many more roads than she remembered from last year....
Two Fridays ago, she reported she was going out with a bag of stale biscuits and unused cans of cat food "for the critters."
I love my friend, and I understand her motivations are pure, but she and the thousands (millions?) just like her -- well-intentioned visitors to the wild places, are killing them and I wish she (they) would put just a bit more thought into their actions.
The same is true for those that love nature so much that they are compelled to build and live there.
We are "loving" our natural world to death. We are the equivalent to a three year old holding a kitten by its neck -- hugging it with the ferocity of the Boston Strangler.
If we truly love our natural world, we need to adore it from a distance. We need to inform ourselves that it needs space and to be left alone. We are not helping the critters when we feed them -- we are creating a co-dependency that will lead to either drawing them to people as a food source (quick, painful death), or drawing them from their natural food sources (slow, painful death).
Every time we walk across the wild terrain, we leave an imprint -- especially in sensitive areas like a dessert. To drive across it kills that ground for decades. (We can see trails created hundreds of years ago by natives and wildlife, from aerial viewpoints.)
If we must see the wild places first hand, we must limit ourselves to ensure those places will still be there for the future visits:
Thank you.
Two Fridays ago, she reported she was going out with a bag of stale biscuits and unused cans of cat food "for the critters."
I love my friend, and I understand her motivations are pure, but she and the thousands (millions?) just like her -- well-intentioned visitors to the wild places, are killing them and I wish she (they) would put just a bit more thought into their actions.
The same is true for those that love nature so much that they are compelled to build and live there.
We are "loving" our natural world to death. We are the equivalent to a three year old holding a kitten by its neck -- hugging it with the ferocity of the Boston Strangler.
If we truly love our natural world, we need to adore it from a distance. We need to inform ourselves that it needs space and to be left alone. We are not helping the critters when we feed them -- we are creating a co-dependency that will lead to either drawing them to people as a food source (quick, painful death), or drawing them from their natural food sources (slow, painful death).
Every time we walk across the wild terrain, we leave an imprint -- especially in sensitive areas like a dessert. To drive across it kills that ground for decades. (We can see trails created hundreds of years ago by natives and wildlife, from aerial viewpoints.)
If we must see the wild places first hand, we must limit ourselves to ensure those places will still be there for the future visits:
- wear soft shoes and walk trails already established.
- don't leave anything behind -- not even foot prints if you can help it.
take only pictures and your trash. - don't encroach on the animals you see. Take binoculars if you want to see better, but leave them space. If you scare them off, it may be for good.
- don't pick the flowers, they have to mature on the plant to re-seed so there are flowers the next season.
- don't feed the animals.
Thank you.
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