[Geysers] Orange Mound Spring Damage

[Robert C. Johnson]

David,
 
Unfortunately we have noticed the same thing at some of our more ecologically sensitive camping areas in Oregon.  The Forest Service makes a big show of worrying about user impact on natural resources, and yet when something truly unsettling or egregious happens, it's almost invariably the result of their own maintenance people.
 
The problem  seems to be lack of informed supervision. Here they use low-security-risk prisoners from the local jail to do much of the work, and of course none of the higher-ups want to go out and make sure that they don't damage things. So they send someone along who has no clue at all about any of the environmental concerns that may have indeed been discussed in detail on a higher level in the past.
 
In the case of the area I head the user group for, we asked that a biologist accompany any of the crews that get set loose in the area, but the big-wigs just laughed that off.  Then you show up to find that all the hundred-year-old wildlife snags that were supposed to be left in place have been cut down and sectioned up for firewood. 
 
It's an upsetting pattern, for sure.
 
Robert Johnson.
 
 
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