Boondockers as nature lovers

We love to boondock to enjoy nature. We also enjoy many of the desert areas for doing this - where it is safe and hassle-free to do so. The DW for several years now will not permit us to camp anywhere near the once beautiful and remote Southwestern U.S. border public land areas or to even consider camping south of the border like we did many years ago.

A very sad situation after finally being able to retire and finally having just enough money and time to do it. The marginal jerks - or worse - in this world always manage to ruin something, somewhere, for the rest of us who once we're able to enjoy it ... can't.

Things are the way they are, because we allow it. We must accept responsibility and do the right thing.

profdant139 wrote:
It's an equal opportunity crime -- there are folks of all backgrounds who are trashing our public lands....

The question is what to do about it when you see it, and the answer is easy -- contact the appropriate law enforcement agency and do not try to solve the problem yourself. Lots of these folks are armed.

Good advice, and the rangers take this seriously. Unfortunately they can't fix stupid. Seems like every year, there's another home-grown vandal caught on public lands. A guy from North Carolina paid a $10,000 fine to cover restoration costs after he scratched his own name into a rock panel of ancient art in Glen Canyon. He told the ranger he thought it would be "cool" when he was caught before he even got off the river. Then there were those ex-Scout leaders who knocked over the rock formation in Goblin Valley State Park a few years ago and videotaped themselves doing it - sentenced to probation and fined.

It's an equal opportunity crime -- there are folks of all backgrounds who are trashing our public lands. Being opposed to illegal use of the land does not necessarily imply any sort of political bias. I am disturbed by left wing graffiti artists at Joshua Tree, right wing Cliven Bundy fans tearing up cryptobiotic soil in Utah, cartel-affiliated marijuana growers in the Sierras, apolitical boondockers who scatter garbage around, gun enthusiasts who shoot up the landscape and leave their spent brass, game poachers, you name it.

The question is what to do about it when you see it, and the answer is easy -- contact the appropriate law enforcement agency and do not try to solve the problem yourself. Lots of these folks are armed.

Not saying the poster is biased.

The linked Washington Examiner, however, is a conservative political website which runs articles like this one by the "Washington Secrets" writer in support of particular agendas. A recurring theme is the need for construction of a wall on the border with Mexico.