kid chopping down live trees?
I hope an adult is not stupid enough to cut live lodgepole pine.
I just came home from camping in the NF in a dispersed camping area in the forest.
As I took a walk one morning maybe a 100 yds. from where I camped there were about four 4-6 in. green trees that been chopped down and left. The only intent of chopping it down was the fun of chopping it with an axe and watching it fall. I can't imagine an adult doing this, but where was the adult while this was being done. I'm sure when you see a kid walk out of camp with an axe you would want to know where they are going and what are they going to do with the axe.
What makes me even more angry is that I was camped in the same camp 2 yrs. ago and there were about 4 small live pines that had been chopped down for the fun of it, right in the camp, which must have been right under the noses of the adults in camp. I'm sure it was the same camper family.
We talked to the rangers about it then, but apparently nothing was done about it. The camp site is only a 100 ft. of the main road with NFS trucks going up and down the road all day long.
I would hope that they could find the family and bar them from the NF for about 5 yrs. and fine them enough that they would have to sell any camping gear to pay for the fine. Or even better, make them pay the fine and confiscate any and all of their camping gear, including an RV if they had one. That's about what they would do if it happened in Yellowstone.
To make it even worse is that the trees in that area are being hit by the Mountain Pine Beetle. I have seen some dispersed and even one established campground totally denuded of trees by the beetles.
I just had to vent about this.
What do you think? Am I too harsh in my thinking?
I just came home from camping in the NF in a dispersed camping area in the forest.
As I took a walk one morning maybe a 100 yds. from where I camped there were about four 4-6 in. green trees that been chopped down and left. The only intent of chopping it down was the fun of chopping it with an axe and watching it fall. I can't imagine an adult doing this, but where was the adult while this was being done. I'm sure when you see a kid walk out of camp with an axe you would want to know where they are going and what are they going to do with the axe.
What makes me even more angry is that I was camped in the same camp 2 yrs. ago and there were about 4 small live pines that had been chopped down for the fun of it, right in the camp, which must have been right under the noses of the adults in camp. I'm sure it was the same camper family.
We talked to the rangers about it then, but apparently nothing was done about it. The camp site is only a 100 ft. of the main road with NFS trucks going up and down the road all day long.
I would hope that they could find the family and bar them from the NF for about 5 yrs. and fine them enough that they would have to sell any camping gear to pay for the fine. Or even better, make them pay the fine and confiscate any and all of their camping gear, including an RV if they had one. That's about what they would do if it happened in Yellowstone.
To make it even worse is that the trees in that area are being hit by the Mountain Pine Beetle. I have seen some dispersed and even one established campground totally denuded of trees by the beetles.
I just had to vent about this.
What do you think? Am I too harsh in my thinking?
