Should Enviro Groups Be Promoting More Human Recreation Use Of Still-Unspoiled Places?
A longtime Montana conservationist calls out a group for promoting its 'Trail of the Week' at a time when natural areas are being overwhelmed at the expense of wildlife
When has the fishing ever improved when more people converge upon a hole? When does a place offer more solace after the masses are encouraged to descend upon it? On this stretch of water, two's company but crowds, brought by social media and unbridled promotion, can destroy the essence of wild places and displace the wildlife that needs secure habitat. Honestly, Heidi Barrett asks, do we still need to be promoting the 'undiscovered' secret places of Greater Yellowstone and the Rocky Mountain West? If you want to save a favorite spot, don't broadcast its location, she says. Photo courtesy Jacob W. Frank/NPS
EDITOR'S NOTE: We all love to be outdoors. Recreation is good for our physical and mental well-being. But do wild places need publicists? Should groups involved with protecting wild lands and wildlife be in the business of promoting more recreational use of sensitive areas? It's not as if the Greater Yellowstone region, its trails and waterways haven't already been discovered.Mountain Journal is sharing a letter written by Livingston, Montana resident Heidi Barrett, below, to a group called Wild Montana, formerly the Montana Wilderness Association, about its marketing of "Trail of the Week." Barrett herself is an avid conservationists and recreationist. She believes there are plenty of places to play and our wild country needs no more advertising encouraging people to swarm the special places that still remain. Doing so, she says, is not benign. Despite what some groups claim, there is little or no evidence to support the contention that promoting outdoor recreation results in better conservation outcomes for wildlife living in the areas being touted. What do you think? Drop us a note and we may publish your comment at the end of this piece, like the ones there now. —Mountain Journal editors.
by Heidi Barrett
Dear Wild Montana Friends,
I am writing to express my concerns with the Trail of the Week, which I hear all the time on KGLT public radio out of Bozeman, Montana.
First, what is the purpose of doing the Trail of the Week? We in Montana are experiencing an unprecedented increase in the number of residents and many of these residents do not share the same conservation ethic many of us "old-timers do". Just a week or so ago the Trail of the Week mentioned a plant which grows only in the mentioned location. It is only found at that location and nowhere else in the world. Of all things, why would you mention something so rare at a public forum, I would bet the best thing for that plant is for it to remain undisturbed.
Why do you want to see people out in areas that are sensitive and off the beaten path? If anything Wild Montana should be working to protect these areas. There is absolutely NO NEED to advertise Montana's special places. And the tagline mentions folks should support the businesses in these areas. I would think a Chamber of Commerce could do that and not an organization mandated to protect wild places.
Every time Trail of the Week airs I get angry and am disappointed in Wild Montana.
I look forward to hearing your defense of Trail of the Week.
And here is food for thought. As context, watch the recent 60 Minutes investigative report below on what's happening to biological diversity as a result of growing human pressure on wild places.
Thanks for Heidi Barrett's piece on "Trail of the Week," which is now the face of the organization "Wild" Montana -- formerly the Montana Wilderness Association. Apparently since they failed for so many decades to achieve any new wilderness designation despite collaborating away vast acreages and existing Wilderness Study Areas, they decided to change the name—and the mission. Now it's "promote, promote, promote" and if you read what they have to say is their goal, it's "prosperity" and helping Montana "thrive."
But what they do is promote tourism and, as Heidi pointed out, even more traffic into what's left of Montana's wild places. I listen to KGLT all the time and like Heidi, every time I hear that corny "Trail of the Week" I really have to wonder -- what's the point?
IF (big IF) they were right that sticking more people in the wilderness built more support for wilderness, I guess we'd have to ask, "so why isn't there any new wilderness designated in Montana if you have generated so much support. Of course that's simply promotional blather -- there's not a scintilla of evidence stuffing more people in the wilds has any connection whatsoever to achieving more wilderness designation.
Of course their promotion has had an effect -- they went from a couple rented rooms in a downtown Helena building to owning a million-dollar stone castle on a hill. From having two or three staffers to more than 25 now. So yeah, their phony schtick brought benefits—but not to wilderness or Montana—to them. Big staff, big salaries, big building -- and teensy tiny, if any, wins for wilderness.
Those of us who have been around a long time watched it all happen when they decided to abandon advocacy for "collaboration." Not because collaborators win any wilderness, they don't...and what little they've been able to achieve through terrible bills like Baucus' Rocky Mountain Front bill they traded off for way more acreage, opening roadless areas to logging and, get this, permanent grazing rights without environmental analysis, and the loss of existing Wilderness Study Areas. Pitiful. Simply pitiful for an organization that sells people the charade of being advocates for wilderness.
So thanks again, Heidi. You're not the only one who sees the writing on the wall -- and the hordes in the wilderness.
George Ochenski Helena, Montana
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I am writing to express my 100 percent agreement with Heidi Barrett's criticism of Wild Montana's 'Trail of the Week' broadcasts that advertise and promote Montana's trails. I am a lifelong Montanan, and have backpacked into every one of Montana's wilderness areas and hiked countless other trails in our beautiful state for decades. I can fully attest that nothing spoils a wilderness or trail hiking experience more than finding crowds of people swarming in your favorite place, totally destroying the beauty, peace, quiet and solitude that was once there.
Never, ever has ANY wild place or trail been 'more protected' with more people converging on it. In fact, the exact opposite is always true. In reality, the actual result of advertising/marketing/promoting trails or wild places is inevitably more litter, trash, dog poop, human feces, trampled flora, and wildlife that has been run off.
Wild Montana is no longer a wilderness advocate by any stretch of the imagination. Its latest director is a Texan whose introductory photo was taken in a clearcut where giant cedars once towered over ferns and mosses, where only knapweed and logging debris remain today. (I have been there & know the exact place.) The organization has 'gone south', and is now nothing more than a wildland marketing/advertising firm masquerading as wilderness advocates in order to fill its coffers with cash from unsuspecting donors.
Polly Pfister Helena, Montana
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I have followed the MWA sell out since 1986 when I was on the MWA Council and tried to get them to refocus on protecting Wilderness rather than play at being amateur politicians. Regarding The Trail of the Week, I can't help but hear it as Betrayal of the Week. And it seems to be on an endless loop.
Larry Campbell Missoula, Montana
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Yes, Wild Montana’s
Trail of the Week is not helping conserve public lands and wildlife ecosystems.
But the far more significant threat is ongoing efforts of the commercial
outdoor recreation industry to increase profits from excessive recreation
developments permitted on federal lands. Check out the Biden Administration’s
newly-formed Federal Interagency Council on Outdoor Recreation and the 2022
Outdoor Recreation Act introduced by Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and John
Barrasso of Wyoming. Both actions are supported by various lobbying groups
representing components of the commercial outdoor recreation industry, from federal
land resort and lodge permittees, permitted outfitter and guide businesses,
mountain bike and OHV dealers, etc. They are continually seeking changes in law
and policy to make it easier for them to profit from excessive commercial
outdoor recreation on federal public lands, regardless of the impacts to local
communities, wildlife, fisheries and other declining resources. Their currently
favorite keywords and phrases are “accessibility,” “inclusive,” and “enhanced
access.” The industry’s lobbying forces have a strong influence on land management
agencies’ budgets and Congressional relationships. Agency capture lives.
The only antidote to
agency capture by the commercial outdoor recreation industry is large networks
of watchful individuals and organizations working together to represent the
public interest in conserving public lands and wildlife from excessive
commercial recreation developments, especially in wild areas harboring
sensitive and wide-ranging species.
Wild
Montana and its followers are a very important part of such networks, as demonstrated
by their efforts to encourage their many followers to comment on the recently
proposed massive expansion of Holland Lake Lodge and restaurant on the Flathead
National Forest, within the Primary Conservation Area for grizzly bears and
designated critical habitat for Canada lynx and bull trout. Thanks in part to Wild Montana’s efforts
nearly 99 percent of 6,500 comments to the Forest Service opposed the proposed
massive expansion. Even larger networks
are needed to restrain the commercial outdoor recreation industry’s excessive
thirst for easy money from federal public lands.
Jim Morrison
Missoula, Montana
About Heidi Barrett
Conservationist Heidi Barrett has three decades of experience working with nonprofits in and around Park County, Montana. She began her nonprofit career as the sole employee of a small grassroots organization, the Beartooth Alliance, in Silver Gate, Montana, on the edge of Yellowstone National Park in the early '90s. The group was formed to stop an industrial-sized gold mine near Yellowstone's northeast corner. Heidi then worked for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition's development department for nearly 18 years. She directed the Park County Senior Center for almost two years before joining the team at ASPEN, an organization in Livingston devoted to abuse support and prevention. Barrett also is a leader with the volunteer nonprofit organization, Friends of Park County.
