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Thinking like a mountain

To the editor:

The discussions, or rather the debate, about limiting access to some trails in the High Peaks Wilderness Area during peak times renews the debate over how best to PRESERVE and MANAGE state lands. But let’s be clear about one thing: Things are out of control. The public is mindlessly turning some of the most magnificent areas in the country into a theme park.

Under the State Land Master Plan, a wilderness area is defined as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man … an area of primeval character without significant improvement or one that is protected and managed so as to preserve, enhance and restore, where necessary, its natural conditions.

Moreover, a wilderness area is one that has “outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation.”

Naturally, there is some reasonable flexibility in how best to fulfill this management MANDATE, but in the absence of swift action, one should not exclude closing trails for periods of restoration and natural recovery.

Controlling numbers should not be about so-called “carrying capacity” but about preserving the landscape, as required by law and commands of nature.

We must begin “thinking like a mountain,” as ecologist Aldo Leopold once wrote. What the communities and interest groups around the park need is a land ethic that places the ecological, geological and other features of scientific, educational, scenic or historical value above demands for instant gratification and financial gain.

Harsh as it may seem, we need to be able to tell resident and non-resident users of wilderness either to stay home or come only when the mountain can accept you.

Peter Borelli

Northville

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