Joined
·
5,774 Posts
Looks like the Feds are sniffing around closing beach access on Assateague. http://www.fws.gov/uploadedFiles/Appendix A_CHN_CCPEIS.pdf
To sustain resource and visitor protection, staff for research/wildlife monitoring, and law enforcement patrols
access the wilderness with motor vehicles. Additionally, recreationists with an Over Sand Vehicle (OSV) permit on the
ASIS in Maryland are allowed to drive their vehicle along the beach. This combination of vehicular presence currently
impacts the island’s wilderness character...
Hiking to the state line in the Island Wilderness makes the word “shipwrecked” feels much more real.
It may generate a mixture of accomplishment and humbleness: an oneness with nature. A visitor may contemplate the steady
roll of the waves or sympathize with the American sea rocket that has found a way to grow in the hot sun, sand, and
salt. There is the chance to see more secretive wildlife that avoid the more populous areas in the park and refuge: a
river otter may play on the banks of the Old Fields impoundment; a hunting eagle may soar overhead; a mare may even
be giving birth to her colt.
In this scenario, it is easy to feel at peace with nature, but there are distractions which may intrude on any self-
induced shipwreck: the persistent or abandoned structures may be more startling in this otherwise undeveloped
environment; litter, from far away, may have drifted upon the shore; tire tracks from the last monitoring patrol may mar
the sand; an OSV permit owner may even drive up within a few minutes next to the exhausted hiker. The gas-powered
OSV vehicle user, however, will not have the same experience as a human-powered encounter with nature.
This primitive, unconfined recreation on Assateague Island is the intention for its proposed wilderness
designation.
This is what passes for a proposal? Rather than hard science, this rambling purple prose that sounds like it came out of a junior high creative writing class?
To sustain resource and visitor protection, staff for research/wildlife monitoring, and law enforcement patrols
access the wilderness with motor vehicles. Additionally, recreationists with an Over Sand Vehicle (OSV) permit on the
ASIS in Maryland are allowed to drive their vehicle along the beach. This combination of vehicular presence currently
impacts the island’s wilderness character...
Hiking to the state line in the Island Wilderness makes the word “shipwrecked” feels much more real.
It may generate a mixture of accomplishment and humbleness: an oneness with nature. A visitor may contemplate the steady
roll of the waves or sympathize with the American sea rocket that has found a way to grow in the hot sun, sand, and
salt. There is the chance to see more secretive wildlife that avoid the more populous areas in the park and refuge: a
river otter may play on the banks of the Old Fields impoundment; a hunting eagle may soar overhead; a mare may even
be giving birth to her colt.
In this scenario, it is easy to feel at peace with nature, but there are distractions which may intrude on any self-
induced shipwreck: the persistent or abandoned structures may be more startling in this otherwise undeveloped
environment; litter, from far away, may have drifted upon the shore; tire tracks from the last monitoring patrol may mar
the sand; an OSV permit owner may even drive up within a few minutes next to the exhausted hiker. The gas-powered
OSV vehicle user, however, will not have the same experience as a human-powered encounter with nature.
This primitive, unconfined recreation on Assateague Island is the intention for its proposed wilderness
designation.
This is what passes for a proposal? Rather than hard science, this rambling purple prose that sounds like it came out of a junior high creative writing class?
