NRALIFR wrote:
“ Some have said, well, it's not US, so we shouldn't be held responsible. We might not be the source of the problem but we will ALL pay the price for others' disregard for the rules. The attitude that the USFS could never put a ban on dispersed camping is dead WRONG. They HAVE and WILL continue to close areas where cleanup, particularly of abandoned vehicles, hazardous materials, and homeless encampments have forced a redirection of scarce funding that could have been put to better use. ”
That depends on how pervasive the problem is, and how uncooperative the squatters are. I’ve seen a few of those trashed areas, and they aren’t anyplace I desire to go as long as they’re being trashed. If the only way to keep those areas from being trashed is by closing them, then I favor closing them. If issuing citations and fining the ones doing this doesn’t stop the behavior, what else can you do but close the area? There’s a legal term for areas that for whatever reason are magnets for bad people and bad behavior. They’re called an “attractive nuisance”, and once a particular area gets known as a place where anything goes, then it’s no surprise that everything goes on. Once that happens, the only way to stop it sometimes is to close it down.
Maybe I read more into your wording of the topic subject, but it seemed to me that there was some fear that ALL forests would be closed to the public because of a few filthy pigs squatting in a few areas. That’s what I meant when I said this will not result in the forests being closed to all.
The sad fact is, the people doing the trashing of these areas are not on this forum, or any other RV forum. I’m as against this type of behavior as you are, but unfortunately you’re preaching to the choir here.
:):)
Kevin, I meant all of US, NOT all of the National Forests. We're both on the same page.
