dewey02 wrote:
The public lands are millions of acres. The simple statement of "rangers just need to do their job and enforce the existing laws" won't solve the problem because they can't cover all those acres all the time. The comment about needing to double the amount of rangers to adequately enforce this situation is greatly understated. And the money to put on additional rangers just isn't there.
Contrary to what people believe, LEOs are dealing with a lot of issues on public lands, and dumping/littering is hardly their number one priority. While the idea of a permit for boondocking is novel, it wouldn't solve the problem - just another rule that rangers would have to enforce when they already have lots of other rules to enforce and don't have the time, money or staff to do so.
We can easily sit here on RV.net and just say "Rangers need to do their job", but it isn't that easy and it won't solve the problem. There will always be rule breakers, and breaking the rules out in the boonies where it is miles down a dead-end road isn't going to be easy, or done quickly.
-A retired ranger.
Very good points from someone who knows.
I will add what I know: I grew up in these remote areas (our farm was next door to a BLM campground, and we spent our vacations boondocking in others. People dumping trash in rural areas is not new.
As tvov said:
This problem isn't new... walk through the woods of Vermont, trash all over the woods, dating back decades if not more than 100 years.
People being too poor to live in houses is not new, either, although of course it is much worse since 1980 and about to get a whole lot worse now.
Everything in this article is a lie, designed to inflame the targeting of poor people by people who have a little bit more. This attitude is going to ruin our country if we can't get a hold of ourselves, control our emotions, and think about what we are doing and what the real causes of these problems are.
A user fee does not solve the problem of people who are too poor to pay the fee. Where do you think those people are going to go? You don't want them in the woods. Do you want them in the towns? Living on the sidewalk outside your S&B? People on this forum complain about them being in the walmart parking lots, too. Where do you want them to go?
