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Uh, Brian
Posted by bushrat on Feb 03 2006
Hey Brian,
Have you ever read or heard of the book Mountains Without Handrails: Reflections on National Parks by Joseph Sax? Or how about Wilderness and the American Mind by Roderick Nash?
Surely you see the habituation of wildlife that Northway (Mike) was referring to, don't you? I don't think he meant anything other than that. My in-laws flew out here once to the real bush after first visiting Denali on the bus. After a week here my father-in-law commented, "I don't get it...where are all the animals? In Denali we saw caribou, moose, sheep and bears...a bear walked right up to the bus...yet I haven't seen any of those here."
I think that is what Mike was alluding to, the fact that some of our National Parks are in fact Disneylands and that a lot of people think this is "normal" or what the rest of Alaska is like. I suppose habituation, whether along the haul road or not, is still habituation. Then again, it could be semantics. Perhaps the bears in Katmai are habituated to humans as well, as are the McNeil bears. By saying Denali is like a "zoo" just implies habituation. Whereas in the wild, in the areas where not a lot of humans tread, or mechanized vehicles travel, things are...well, more wild.
I know Northway to be one of the hardest working hunters I've had the pleasure to run across. I respect him even if we may disagree on control plans and baiting of brown bears and other issues. He's one of the few hunters I know who is willing to listen to all sides and I've learned a lot from him on that...cuz when I'm a jerk and say something that is narrow-minded he has set me straight or at least offered his pov on things.
I'm a tree-hugger environmentalist conservationist. Unlike most hunters here in Alaska. I believe in the principle of our national parks. But to think that many of them are NOT Disneylands and in fact zoos is a bit of a stretch. Like Ed Abbey and Sax and others, I say we should take all the handrails out of our Parks, take the roads out as well. Make people walk in, walk out, on a limited basis, instead of "viewing nature" behind safety glass from the comfort of their climate-controlled automobile. Or from that school bus. Nature isn't nature from eight feet up with your head out a darn school bus window. Too many just think it is!
I find your offer and challenge to Northway to be off color. And non-sensical. Yes there are thankfully salmon streams we can visit where the great bear still comes to this natural source of "bait," and yes that's cool you can take visitors there to snap pics of these (habituated, I'll bet) bears and experience that. And yes it's also way cool that you can guarantee that someone on one of your trips will see more bears than they ever have in their life. More power to you on that...it must be an awesome experience to show people. I think we agree that allowing the brown and grizzly bear a continued presence is a great and noble thing. And that our Parks and Preserves may uphold this for us and deserve our support and respect. But I've got a long history of claiming just what Mike did, that many of our Parks have become Disneylands. That what people experience in them is disney-like. The wilderness of Denali, out beyond the road, is different. But very few Denali visitors wander far from that school bus.
I once stayed on Tom Sawyer island in Disneyland in Southern California as a boy, until after the last "raft" crossed and the park closed. I was shocked when I ran into a chain-link fence behind the "fort" and an electric transmission station and buildings hidden behind fake trees. I thought the island was all real. I was eight years old at the time. Got in big trouble too.
Best, Mark
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