Dear HCN,
I’d like to respond to
William Corcoran’s attack on guidebook critics like myself (HCN,
10/2/95). Mr. Corcoran says I should spend more of my energy on
Planned Parenthood “instead of preaching perfection to an imperfect
world” and in part he’s right. The fact is, there are just too damn
many people out there. Too many people in one special, fragile,
beautiful canyon or mountain meadow will ruin it, no matter how
pure their intentions might be or how much money they send to their
favorite environmental group.
I’m not “preaching
perfection,” I’m trying (probably hopelessly) to protect what’s
left of perfection … the dwindling, pristine lands of the West.
That’s the only perfection I am interested in. Mr. Corcoran and his
ilk should take a trip to southeast Utah sometime and see what
100,000 bicyclists per year have done to the lands around Moab in
just the last decade.
Whether it’s too many cows
or too many well-meaning but unimaginative guidebook-inspired
hikers, those impacts will ultimately destroy the very land people
like Mr. Corcoran claim to love. But what disturbs me most about
the “herd animal” instinct is the fact that cows don’t know any
better …
Guidebook devotees
should.
Jim
Stiles
Moab,
Utah
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Advice from Jim Stiles.
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