I am going to rant here. I made it up to Fairy Falls last night after work. When I got there...I saw that some of the shrubbery off to the right side was all torn up. Someone had climbed up the steep bank about 10 feet or so to get a different comp. They trashed a lot of vegetation including blatently pushing over a whole set of fern branches...probably because it was in the way of the comp. I could tell it was a photographer, and the person had to be sure footed to make it up there.
Now, this partially ruins the scene for all the hikers and other photographers. I'm not saying it was one of us from the forum...but it was definitely a photographer.
It's one thing if it is an area nobody else would ever see...but this is a trail which hundreds see per weekend...
We've got to think about others out there...just not getting the comp at other's expense.
If it was someone reading this post...shame, shame, shame!
That's really too bad, Rick. I had exactly the same thing happen a year ago at Punch Bowl. Someone crushed all the ferns on the left-hand rocks for no apparent reason - though it looked less like from a photographer. I don't care whether I'm in the middle of the wilderness or right along a trail, I try to be careful. An area like Fairy falls especailly, due to it's proximity to the trail, needs to be treated with the greatest of respect and there is no excuse for trampling it. Shame, shame, shame!
I'm not sure how bad they are now, but I did notice those ferns on the right looking as though they were matted down. I couldn't tell in any were broken or not. It looked more like someone had climbed up a step or two and sat against them. I'll admit, it did irritate me quite a bit too. It is too bad to know that even more damage and tearing off of ferns and moss occured since then... arghhh!!
It was like that on Thursday morning at 5:30AM when I arrived there. In fact it was like that above the bench on the left side of the falls also. If it wasn't that way when Ned arrived on Wednesday AM then it happened sometime Wednesday. Moreover, I noticed tripod holes in the dirt in both locations.
For the record I was also disappointed and I am sure we will not be the only ones. I pasted Zack on the way down heading for the same place. I have found many places like this on several areas up Eagle Creek, Tanner Creek etc lately. The plant life or the moss was destroyed right around an excellent composition with evidence of tripod feet and/or boot marks.
How sad. Such pathetic behavior. I'm glad that the vast majority of nature photographers have enough respect for thier fellow man and the beauty of nature, that they wouldn't do this. I seriously doubt it was any of us.
If caught doing something like this, the culprit should be sentenced to a week of supervised trail maintenance in the back country!
The PNW is very fragile. No where I've ever seen more so than the Gorge. Areas with mosses and ferns must be treated with respect. We must use this forum and our combined photographic interests and connections to promote not only the capture of the wilderness environment, but it's preservation. Everyone needs to keep incidents like this in mind this summer when traveling to locations such as the wildflower meadows of Rainier - NO TRAMPLING THE FLOWERS! Photographs are not worth scaring the landscape to get them.
There has never once been a time when I have not been to the gorge when there have not been photographers with tripods disregarding the signs to stay on the trails. Somehow there seems to be a mindset that if it's a weekday, and they have a tripod (making them suddenly pros) and they can get away with it, no amount of tramping about the streamside vegetation is off limits as long as they can get an image better than the zillions of others they have seen of the gorge waterfalls. The place is simply being loved to death, one boot print at a time.
Here is how it looked 3 days ago - I didn't see any signs of deterioration then. This is very unfortunate especially if our posts sharing the beauty of the area "motivated" someone to visit these areas they might not know about otherwise. It is a fragile ecco system and I'm sad that someone spoiled it for others that wished to see and photograph the beauty.
Any time I see folks out of bounds, I take photos of them and pass a disc along to the nearest relavent authorities, as well as contact info should I be needed as a witness in a court case. So far the Park Service etc have been happy with my contribution, and I haven't been called to testify. But you ought to see the miscreants scramble for cover when I start taking pictures of them! It has more impact if you use fill flash and take lots of shots.
OK, so here is the question. Some of us have scrambled "off trail" anywhere from a little to a lot. Are we allowed to do this ? A number of the awesome photos of Marc's are off trail and I'd love to do some off trail but I'm not sure if this is allowed. Can we get busted for scrambling down the hillside and walking up a creek? Even if we are as careful as possible, some damage is done from our explorations.....
Off-trail travel is almost always allowed. Just use common sense and take it upon yourself to consider others and your impact on the environment and do the right thing. If it is not allowed, there is usually a good reason, such is the case at Multnomath falls, Ramona Falls, or the wildflower meadows at Rainier.
On an unrelated note, I just have to laugh every time the forest service puts up a "stay on trails" or "don't cut switchbacks" sign right next to the 500 acres they just sold off to be clearcut.
When traveling off trail, try to stay on existing primitive routes, animal trails, rocky terrain, more stable terrain, stream-beds, in the stream, ect, ect. There are lots of ways to minimize your impact. Take it opon yourself to excersize good judgement that will not compromise the scenery for everyone. Yes, I've torn up some moss and ferns hiking off trail, but in areas that very rarely see foot traffic and when they do it's dispersed over a very large area. However, I would not consider climbing the banks of Fairy Falls because clearly, the area is going to see much more traffic and would have difficult time recovering in such a concentrated location, and furthermore, tearing up foliage only encourages others to follow in your footprints.
Great guidelines, Marc. And I agree with you about how sad it is to see the clearcut areas. I was surprised how close to Lost Lake the clearings are... especially along Lolo pass...
Posted by Kevin Pieper on June 9, 2006 at 11:02 PM
that really sucks. It drives me crazy when one or two photographers do something stupid like this and give us all a bad reputation. btw, marc, I like your general guidelines.
That does suck since I wanted to head up that way tomorrow a.m..
I've spent quite a bit of time in national parks, and the amount of wear and tear those trails see in a season is amazing. Glacier used to see around 1.5 million visitors per year a few years ago and I believe Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Teton were all in the same general ranges of visitors(1-1.5million). With even a small percentage of those hikers heading off trail the impact is non-trivial. I don't know how many visitors the gorge sees each year, but my guess is that it isn't decreasing.
There is definitely a trade-off between accessibility and conservation at any park and unfortunately everyones interpretation of 'being careful' isn't the same. Most often the intent isn't malicious, but as Mearle mentioned these areas can be loved to death.
As an aside, last time I was in Grand Teton (2002) they were talking about flying a porta-potti in (and out of course) to the base of Grand Teton. The number of climbers that peak sees was resulting in a bit of a bio-hazard at the base. Not malicious destruction by any means (when you gotta go, you gotta go!), but even little things can add up.
Discussion
15 repliesNow, this partially ruins the scene for all the hikers and other photographers. I'm not saying it was one of us from the forum...but it was definitely a photographer.
It's one thing if it is an area nobody else would ever see...but this is a trail which hundreds see per weekend...
We've got to think about others out there...just not getting the comp at other's expense.
If it was someone reading this post...shame, shame, shame!
For the record I was also disappointed and I am sure we will not be the only ones. I pasted Zack on the way down heading for the same place. I have found many places like this on several areas up Eagle Creek, Tanner Creek etc lately. The plant life or the moss was destroyed right around an excellent composition with evidence of tripod feet and/or boot marks.
How sad. Such pathetic behavior. I'm glad that the vast majority of nature photographers have enough respect for thier fellow man and the beauty of nature, that they wouldn't do this. I seriously doubt it was any of us.
If caught doing something like this, the culprit should be sentenced to a week of supervised trail maintenance in the back country!
On an unrelated note, I just have to laugh every time the forest service puts up a "stay on trails" or "don't cut switchbacks" sign right next to the 500 acres they just sold off to be clearcut.
When traveling off trail, try to stay on existing primitive routes, animal trails, rocky terrain, more stable terrain, stream-beds, in the stream, ect, ect. There are lots of ways to minimize your impact. Take it opon yourself to excersize good judgement that will not compromise the scenery for everyone. Yes, I've torn up some moss and ferns hiking off trail, but in areas that very rarely see foot traffic and when they do it's dispersed over a very large area. However, I would not consider climbing the banks of Fairy Falls because clearly, the area is going to see much more traffic and would have difficult time recovering in such a concentrated location, and furthermore, tearing up foliage only encourages others to follow in your footprints.
I've spent quite a bit of time in national parks, and the amount of wear and tear those trails see in a season is amazing. Glacier used to see around 1.5 million visitors per year a few years ago and I believe Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Teton were all in the same general ranges of visitors(1-1.5million). With even a small percentage of those hikers heading off trail the impact is non-trivial. I don't know how many visitors the gorge sees each year, but my guess is that it isn't decreasing.
There is definitely a trade-off between accessibility and conservation at any park and unfortunately everyones interpretation of 'being careful' isn't the same. Most often the intent isn't malicious, but as Mearle mentioned these areas can be loved to death.
As an aside, last time I was in Grand Teton (2002) they were talking about flying a porta-potti in (and out of course) to the base of Grand Teton. The number of climbers that peak sees was resulting in a bit of a bio-hazard at the base. Not malicious destruction by any means (when you gotta go, you gotta go!), but even little things can add up.
-Brett